


Lost

by Internal_Screaming



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Angst, Gen, thats not my space dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 17:52:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 37,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11788314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Internal_Screaming/pseuds/Internal_Screaming
Summary: As more time passes, Pidge gets more and more anxious to get her family back, luckily, she has team Voltron to back her up. Until Lotor manages to separate her from her team and hold her captive. She won't make it easy for Lotor, but that means he won't make it easy for her either. Secrets are revealed and questions rise to the surface, and Pidge learns to sometimes take a leap of faith in desperate times.





	1. Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> This is mainly experimenting, Pidge is my all time favourite character and be ready for Tiny Feared Pidge in future chapters. Mainly screaming and yanking out hair.

Pidge typed in different codes and combinations, getting tired of hearing the same small beep that meant another dead end. She rubbed her eyes in frustration and exhaustion, pushing up Matts glasses and getting them tangled in her hair. Growling, she broke the hairs to free the glasses, causing them to drop down clumsily on her face. Impatience and anger was building up inside of her as each video and file she reviewed continued to wind up as a dead end. Everywhere she turned, there was another wall, blocking her path to Matt and her Dad. She would find some information, maybe even videos and dates, and she could feel herself get closer to her brother and father. Then it would be yanked away, right out of her hands and back into the dark network of holes and caverns known as the Galra database. Out of the light and away from her. The anger boiled up just as she reached another dead end and she kicked the computer away, the device cracking against the cold floor as it scattered pieces of the now broken screen. Regret flooded the anger and she felt the similar prickle of tears sting her eyes. Was asking to get her family back safe and sound really so much to ask for? 

A soft knock at the door caused her to immediately perk up and wipe away the tears with her sleeve, smearing tears and snot on the shirt. She quickly tried to rub away the smears on her sleeve. "Yeah?" She asked, hating the tremble of her voice as she spoke. She didn't want to turn around and show whoever was entering the red puffiness of her eyes and conclude that she was crying. She had to stay strong, for Voltron. And Matt.

"Did I interrupt something? I really hope I didn't interrupt something," Hunks voice stuttered as he entered the room.

Pidge let out a sigh, "No, it's fine." She got the tremble in her voice under control. Maybe he didn't notice. Even if he did, she was glad it was Hunk who heard it compared to the others, he usually doesn't prod to deeply into other people's problems. "What's up?" Then she noticed the smell, the amazing smell of when Hunk overtakes the kitchen and floods the castle with the smell of whatever he decides to cook or bake. It smelled like baking today.

"I was wondering if you wanted a cookie, I got all types and you haven't left this room recently... So I assumed you might be hungry for anything, and I happened to make a bunch of batches so-" Hunk hurriedly explained before Pidge cut him off.

"You're stress baking," she stated. Hunk reeled back like someone snapped their fingers in front of him, sputtering nonsense at first, before finding real words.

"What? What? No! No, of course not! Why would I be stressed? There's nothing to be stressed about, we got Shiro back! Why would I be stress- yeah, I'm stress baking," he admitted, defeated and nearly dumping the platter of cookies as his shoulders slumped. "It's just, I don't doubt Shiro or anything, but Lotor is freaky dude. He has that weird comet ship that is made from the same stuff as Voltron, which is freaky because, what if it's stronger than Voltron? That'd be bad. Very, very, bad. And I've been having this off feeling for, like, a few weeks! And it's freaky too!" Hunk paused in the middle of his rant and looked back at Pidge, then awkwardly looked at the ceiling. "Sorry, I meant to come in, share a few cookies, and maybe get you to bed but I ended up dumping out my problems."

Pidge looked at Hunk, then at the ground. "I think we are all stressed out. We may have gotten Shiro back, but the lions are all jumbled, and it doesn't make sense that the Black Lion would just, reject Shiro! Especially after saving him, and I have the same, on edge feeling... when we found him, his hair was really long... hair doesn't grow that fast over a few weeks. Maybe a year or so, but not WEEKS!" Pidge slumped and looked at the ceiling. "Maybe I'm being paranoid... I shouldn't doubt Shiro, he tries to help me find Matt, and I can feel his need to find him almost as much as I do..."

Hunk was suddenly sitting beside her, his hand on her shoulder. "It's alright to feel you know... I know you want to find them, I can't say I understand but... I miss my family back on Earth, and in a way... I can only imagine how it feels to search for someone that everyone else has given up on. You hold this brave face, and you always put Voltron first. I have no idea how you do it," Hunk reassured. Pidge tried to fight the tears spilling down her cheeks. It hurt. It hurt so much to choose. To brush it off like it's nothing, like she would never abandon Voltron. It hurt to think about all the times she stared at the ships in the hangers and considered leaving right then and there. To leave and only focus on Matt and Dad. It hurt to know she was selfish.

The next thing she knew, she was embraced in one of Hunks signature hugs, the ones that surround you with a feeling of 'safe'. She wanted to pull away, to pretend she didn't always think of the idea of leaving everyone. Yet she didn't want to pull away, she liked this feeling. It was one of the main reasons she didn't leave. The feeling of a cushion, a safety net. A safety net of friends, who happened to slowly become family.

"Thanks Hunk," she whimpered, glad he happened to come by when he did. Everything that hurt was starting to hurt a little less as her tears continued to fall.

She woke up in her bed, curled up in a blanket like a burrito, confused and trying to figure out what year it was. She then remembered her encounter with Hunk and their Feeling Sharing Session, mainly her crying into Hunk and relieving a lot of stress. Her face quickly warmed as she remembered it, how openly she shared her feelings and concerns. Then she remembered her blanket situation, which she was pretty sure it was Hunks doing. She squirmed in the blanket that held her captive, kicking her legs and wiggling her arms out of the blanket burrito. Five minutes of this repeated motion managed to get her free... after falling on the floor from flailing around as she did so. 

Crawling away from the blankets, which she discovered there were three of them, she stood up and looked around for her laptop. Then she remembered the whole punting it across the room in fury moment, and sighed at the realization that she may have to fix it. That's gonna eat up some time. 

Then her stomach growled. She never got any cookies last night. Which she had a sudden craving for, so she headed to the kitchen in search for morning stress cookies. Heading down the halls in a daze, she managed to shuffle quietly and slowly in the general direction of the kitchen. She knew this castle like the back of her hand, and in her state or sleepiness, she knew she might snap at anyone who might want to talk to her. So in turn, she took a very indirect route there, taking her time and allowing herself to wake up slowly. 

She heard someone coming and immediately turned into a different hallway, mentally calculating a different route to get to the kitchen. She slowed to a stop when she heard some weird static and turned to see Shiro walk back, holding his head as if he had a headache. The static grew louder when he got closer then quieter as he walked away. 

Weird.

It was probably just the morning fuzziness. Like when you stand up too fast and everything turns white and a weird ringing fills your ears for a few seconds. She didn't think too much about it, all she cared about at this moment was food. Based on past experiences of 3 days of non-stop research, nothing will stop her on her quest for food after passing out. Someone once made that mistake, back at the academy. She was up for 3 days straight, finishing a project before passing out entirely that night. The next morning was a blur, but she was told that one of the students tried to get in her way. Turns out, she put him in the medical ward and the poor kid could hardly look at her without flinching. 

She managed to apologize to him a week after the incident, he stopped flinching but he continued to avoid her. Don't mess with Pidge after assigned complicated projects which result in sleepless nights.

Finally, she reached the kitchen and tore open a bag full of a mixture of cookies, taking out at least seven of them and closing the bag to shuffle to the table in which she dumped the crumbly goodness onto and began scarfing them down. It took mere seconds for all of it to disappear, and she heard a clatter as she swallowed her last bite. Looking over, she saw Lance staring at her with pure amazement, his spoonful of goo splattered across the table from him dropping it and his mouth still open as if he was about to take a bite. "That... was really disturbing," he managed to choke out. Pidge raised an eyebrow and stood up, stretching out her aches.

"I was hungry," she replied as she yawned.

"Yeah, I could tell since you barely chewed anything. It's was like a vacuum, one moment it's there, the next, it's gone into the inky abyss," he explained, his hands waving around as he talked. 

She grinned at him as she walked back over to the bag and pulled out two more cookies, "I'll try not to inhale then too fast, just for your sanity."

"Thank you!" Lance exclaimed as she chuckled, biting into the cookie and leaving the kitchen. She should get her laptop and fix it, but she was dreading the possibility of it being really messed up. What if she kicked some information out of it? All that hard work would be lost, and she didn't know if she could handle facing that. 

So she went towards the hangers, maybe she could poke around the green lion for more secrets. Not to mention the quiet always soothed her nerves. There was an aura within the green lion that always seemed to soothe her, especially when she was upset. It was like the lion knew she was sad or angry and wanted to help her, it always made her think of when Lance told them that he speaks to his lion, in a way. Which she was starting to believe. At first, she thought he was crazy, but with the understanding of AI's and theories about AI's, she began to believe him more and more. There are still some mysteries left, but she wanted to explore green more and try and reveal these secrets. 

Upon entering the hanger, she could feel the familiar warm hum that emitted from the lion. She couldn't wait to get out her tools and poke around some more, maybe even find something new! "Hey girl, ready for some little adjustments?" She half joked as she approached the lion. The mechanical felines eyes lit up a golden yellow, then lowered its head to the floor so she could enter the cockpit and fetch her tools. Her bin of tools in hand, she began to explore the lion in search for any panels that may reveal new mysteries. 

Who knows how long she spent in her lion, all she knew was that someone was calling her name when she snapped out of her trance in playing with the mechanics. "Just a second!" She yelled as she put her mix-matched wires back in place and misplaced cogs back in their rightful place. Then, crawling out of the small area, she slid out of the lion to be greeted by Hunk.

"Whoa!" He yelped when he saw her coming towards him.

"What? Is there something on my face?" She asked, touch her cheek and looking at her hand. It took her slightly by surprise to see her hand covered in soot, dirt and oil. "Oh."

"A day snooping through your lion? Well I guess it isn't snooping since it is your lion! Or is it since the lion has an AI, so is it snooping-?" Hunk began to ramble.

"Let me stop you before we both get confused, something you need?" Pidge asked, finding a towel and wiping off her hands.

"Well, um, I need to do some extra repairs on Yellow cause she kind of knocked some gears out of place the other day, and I realized today I'm missing some tools! So, is it alright if I borrow some tools that I'm missing?" He asked, his hand on his neck as he looked at the wall. Pidge smiled.

"Of course! I just finished up, just take the entire box for now instead of trying to carry four tools at once, and bring it all back when you're done!" She said as she handed him the box. 

"Thanks Pidge!" He smiled as he took the box and headed to his lion. Pidge decided that this was a sign to get her laptop fixed up and headed back to the empty room that held her damaged laptop. She held her breath as she entered the room and approached the device, scooting closer and closer before picking it up and pressing the power button. It lit up immediately, and after a few quick clicks and checks, she concluded everything was there, the only problem was the cracked screen. She managed to let out her held breath and cracked a smile, everything was fine, nothing to worry about.

She picked up her laptop and moved towards her room, ready for another sleepless night of searching for answers.


	2. Separated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge previously had a nice talk with Hunk and let loose a bunch of pent up feelings. 
> 
> Now a danger approaches, one that might tear at the bonds between the Paladins that were just mended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the support so far! This has been quite fun to write!

Alarms went off, and Allura's voice boomed through the intercom and castle speakers, "Paladins! Lotor's ship has been spotted and he is heading towards the castle! Report to your lions immediately!"

Pidge was up on her feet before Allura had finished her report, dashing towards Green at full speed. Why was he here? Why disappear only to reappear a few weeks later? What was he thinking?

She launched Green and faced the strange Ship alone, the first one to the scene. Yet she was put to ease as the Red and Black lion immediately joined her, then the Blue and Yellow. With backup, she was prepared for anything. "Alright team, we don't know who is in that ship or what they could be planning, but we know that it's dangerous," Keith stated over the communication coms. "What is our best course of action?"

"Uh, I say we form Voltron, because it has the shield. Shields protect us from unknown attacks. And it feels safer," Hunk suggested.

"I agree with Hunk, that ship is made from the same comet as Voltron, and based on its speed from before, it could easily separate us and pick us off if we aren't careful," Pidge pitched in. "We don't know the full extent of its weapons, both power and variety. Even more, we don't know if it is anything like Voltron when it comes to possible alien AI systems."

"What do you think Shiro?" Keith asked. Pidge slightly flinched at his sudden search for instructions from Shiro instead of trusting them, but she remained quiet.

"Pidge is right," Shiro replied. Pidge felt her chest swell with pride, "we don't have enough information, Voltron is our best bet."

"Alright team, form Voltron!" Keith shouted, flying his lion towards the formation as the others followed suit.

Then the mystery ship attacked, firing upon the lions and causing them to separate before getting a chance to connect. Pidge felt something hit her lion and she yelled in shock as she tried to stabilize it, furiously tugging on the controls as the cockpit flashed red and alarms blared. "What'SHHHRK'ned?!" Keith's voice cut in and out. "We al'SHRRK'med Voltro'SHRRRRK'." Pidge finally managed to get her lion in control and turned it towards the others, trying to locate them.

"Is everyone alrigh-" she tried to call before something slammed into her lion, sending it spinning through space. She clung to the controls, trying to find her attacker before getting shot once more. The pain spread from her side to the rest of her body the moment the beam hit her lion, like it attacked her through her link with Green. It burned and stung at the same time, blotting out her vision with white patches and tears of pain. What kind of weapon did this kind of damage?!

Everything shuttered and shook suddenly, cause Pidge to jolt in surprise. There weren't any planets around, there shouldn't be, did she hit an asteroid? 

Sitting up, she held the side of her head as a splitting headache bloomed, then taking a look through Greens monitors she confirmed she was in fact, on a planet. She must've passed out, but for how long? Then everything began to flash red, which wasn't a good sign. "Shit." Shiro would kill her if he heard her swear, but this was the perfect situation. First things first, assess the damage, then fix the damage. Once the damage is fixed, send out a signal... if the emergency one wasn't already being emitted.

She reached for her tool box, then felt empty air. Her heart stopped. 

Where were her tools? She always had the box in Greens cockpit for this exact situation, where else would she put them-? 

Hunk. She lent them to Hunk. "Fuck! Fuckity Fuck! Shit Fuck! Fuuuuck!" She yelled, kicking and digging her fingers through her hair. "Calm down Pidge! Screaming solves nothing! Logic! Use logic!"

The damages, maybe they weren't so horribly bad, it's possible she could fix them by hand. Something could've just popped out of its chamber! Assess the damage. Step one. Finish step one and don't panic, this has happened before and you got out of it alright.

Yeah, but last time she got stranded in a junk field which was full of metal and discarded materials. Not to mention she had some help from those floating space poofs. 

Well maybe this planet had civilization on it, civilization with tools. "That's right Pidge, think positive. Stay optimistic! And stop talking to yourself, that's what crazy people do!" She scolded herself, sealing her helmet so she wouldn't suffocate outside Green. 

Slipping through Greens mouth, she took a few steps away from her to assess the damage. Her heart dropped with a single glance.

Green was splayed out on her side, half of her body buried in sand, and scratches covering the surface. Yet the thing that destroyed all hope Pidge had left was the large scorch mark on the lions side. It was almost as if someone took a large blowtorch and torched her lion's side. She knew that below the metal was where the real damage had taken place. Her imagination mixed with logic betrayed her, flashing images of melted wires and gears, brittle and cracking metal, and damaged parts she couldn't replace. She unconsciously touched her own side, remembering the searing pain her Lion must've felt the moment it hit. Whimpering echoed in the back of her mind, she ached to make it stop, to fix her poor Lion who laid splayed out and buried in sand.

Was this how Lance felt when he connected with his lion? Every hit his lion took, did he feel it too? Or was this... different?

"It's ok Green, I'm sure our team will find us... I hope they managed to fight off that ship," she sighed, looking up at the sky. As horrible as the situation was, the sky on this planet was incredible. Purple mixed with red filled the sky, and small white clouds drifted along the sky lazily, as if it was another, normal day. 

She couldn't help but remember earth, mainly the times before her father and brother vanished. On calm days, her brother somehow managed to coop himself up inside, doing research papers and theories. Occasionally, Shiro would come over and help. Sometimes she would convince Shiro to drag Matt outside and enjoy the sun, mainly having Shiro physically pick him up and throw him in a pond. Matt would sit up, sputtering water and trying so hard to glare at them. He once had a frog on his head, which made it difficult to take his glare seriously. They would then laugh and Matt would chase them around, when he caught them he would attempt to throw them into the pond as revenge. He could only throw Pidge in, but he once managed to trip Shiro which sent him sprawling into the water. Shiro refused to go down without a fight though, and he managed to grab Matt and drag him into the water as well. Her mother and father would laugh as they watched, everyone was smiling and there were no worries, no cares, just a happy day. 

She missed those days.

Something flashed in the corner of her eye and she turned her gaze towards it. Everything stopped when she recognized what it was.

That ship. It was THE ship. The one that did so much damage to Green! 

Anger flared through her, but she knew better than to rush into battle without so much as a wick of information about the other side. So instead, she ran back towards Green, hiding behind one of her legs and peeking over as the mystery ship landed. Narrowing her gaze, she watched as a ramp lowered and a tall Galra-like alien walked out. His hair was long and white, his stride confident as he walked off the ship. No helmet. The air must be safe then, yet she decided to keep hers on, just in case. 

One person. He was tall, but she could take him down, he looked more like a strategist than a brute fighter. She may need more than that though, she learned before that looks can be deceiving. 

Unhooking her bayard, she readied herself for battle, tensing and getting ready to jump when the alien got close enough. This was most likely Lotor as she recognized him from the struggle for the comet, the other people working with him seemed to be women, and as Lotor was known as Prince Lotor, she concluded that this must be him.

Then another person exited the ship, a blue woman, she recognized this one as well. She couldn't win in combat against her. Maybe she just needed to target Lotor-

Three more women left the ship, a bigger, more Galran lady, a very lizard like woman with a cat around her shoulders, and a colourful lady. This situation went from bad to worse, five against one was impossible for her. It could've been possible for Keith, even Shiro, but she didn't have their strength. All she had was her wits.

She looked at her bayard and sighed. The best option was a tactical retreat, Green had a shield, and she knew it was the one thing she could activate. Then, she would just have to wait for her team to find the emergency signal and lock on her location. 

She peeked back out from behind the leg, looking so see how far they were and when would be the best time to run. Four of them were still taking their time, walking like it was just a lazy day. Wait... four? Weren't there suppose to be-?

"Whatchya lookin' at?" A cheery voice chirped from behind her. She jumped up in alarm and spun around to find the fifth member of space evil team. The fact that she looked so cheery was all the more terrifying. 

Before letting the fear erase all of her previous battle training, she took up a battle stance, activating her bayard and sending it at the colourful woman. Who dodged the point blank attack with ease and grace, a grin splayed on her face. "You are quite the small one, aren't you? I assumed you might be faster!" She mocked. Pidge ignored the insult and yanked the blade back, sending it straight at her attacker. The woman smirked and kicked the blade to side seconds before making impact. 

Nope. Pidge deactivated the bayard and started running, this lady was way too acrobatic to face in battle. She needed Lance's sharpshooting skills, he might actually be able to land a hit on this lady. If he didn't flirt with her first.

This girl didn't give up easily though, she immediately jumped in Pidge's path to her Lion. Luckily, she had previous experience of dodging people, specifically her brother. Digging in her heels, she made a quick right turn and headed away from the woman, trying to think of a new way to get to Green.

Then the Blue Lady stood in her path, a gun pointed right at her. Again, she made a right turn and flinched and ducked her head as she heard a gunshot. Looking back, she saw the Blue Lady smirk, and her gut feeling went haywire. When she looked ahead, it was too late. 

The brute Galran lady was right in front of her, reaching out to grab her. Again, she tried to turn but felt herself get lifted off the ground, a sly, "Gotcha," being hissed in her ear.

Pidge immediately kicked and flailed, screaming in anger and slightly in fear. She refused to die like this!

"Well it seems like we finally caught our little mouse," Lotor said with a sly grin as he strode up to them. Pidge decided to pull one of her trump cards at this moment.

She bit the Galra holding her, who yelped and dropped Pidge and looked at her hand. "It bit me!"

The moment she hit the ground, she scrambled away from the intimidating group and ran as fast as she could possible go. Luckily, the group was surprised and it took a few moment for them to realize she was dashing away from them, while also flipping them off. She guessed she probably pissed them off because one of them shot at her again. 

This time, it hit her.

Pain splintered up her leg as she cried out and tripped over her own feet and collapsed to the ground. Her hands reached for source of the pain, squeezing it in hopes that it will null the pain. It only helped a little. She risked a look and regretted it immediately.

Her entire leg was soaked in blood and it was still gushing out, her hands soaked as well from clinging to the wound. Her stomach flipped over and her vision blurred from the throbbing pain. She forced herself in a sitting position, blinking away the white spots in her vision. She was still in enemy territory, she refused to go down without a fight.

She pulled out her bayard and it took its weapon form. The group sauntered over to her like it was no big deal, and it only pissed her off even more. "Did you think You dodged my first shot? That was only a warning shot, this second shot is to make sure you don't try anything else. You should learn quickly that I don't miss," the Blue Lady hissed. At least she pissed this lady off.

"How about you shut up and stay the hell away from me!" Pidge growled as her grip on her bayard tightened. "I refuse to let you get your slimy hands on the Green Lion!"

"The Green Lion?" Lotor smoothly purred. "My dear, if I wanted the Lion, I would need them all. I'm here for a Paladin. You just happen to be the lucky one we managed to corner." A sly smile slide across his face.

Pidge's blood turned to ice as time slowed around, memories flashing through her mind. The day she learned that Matt and Dad where gone, presumed dead. Pain and tears, her mother choking on tears as she collapsed to the ground and the deafening silence as the world spun around her. Anger followed the silence, and then she started screaming at the messenger, calling him a lier and yelling that they were still alive. Then more silence as she locked herself away in her room. Then the guilt she felt a year later when she disappeared from earth, she could picture her mother's broken face when she heard the news.

Now it was going to happen again, only she was in Shiro's and Matt's place, and the ones who would feel the guilt was her team. She couldn't let that happen, she couldn't let her team feel the lost, broken feeling she keeps feeling every day. 

She quickly aimed at Lotor, and set her weapon off, sending the blade straight at him as a last resort. 

He dodged with ease, his grin unfazed as he stared into her soul. It was over.

Something hard and blunt hit her in the back of the head, sending her to the ground and her vision spinning. She clung to the last strings of consciousness, feeling herself get lifted from the ground, the last thing she saw before the void took hold was the beautiful sky.

And a Red Lion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, did I just hurt the smol salty child? Yep.


	3. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team recovers from the surprise attack but find one of their members missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the nice and encouraging comments! You have no idea how warm and fuzzy I feel when I read them as well as the happiness and motivation I get! Sometimes I even squeal when I see I got a new comment! I'm glad everyone is enjoying this story!
> 
> This chapter is a short one, mainly a bit of filler.

"Keith? Allura? Hunk? Pidge?" Lance called, "what happened? Where did Lotor go?"

"His ship went off ahead, where's Pidge? She's not responding through her Lion," Keith asked.

"Guys, I saw that ship shoot some sort of beam at the Green Lion! Do you think Pidge is hurt? Oh god, what if she's really hurt!? What if that ship is going to go finish her off- OH NO WE NEED TO GO AFTER THEM IMMEDIATELY!" Hunk cried, his voice quickly rising in panic.

"Lance! Red is the fastest Lion-" Keith ordered.

"I'm on it!" Lance yelled, shifting Red into motion and in the direction of the ship. Worry crept up in the corners of his mind, grabbing hold of his imagination and offering very bad outcomes. No! Pidge was fine, she could handle herself. She could easily activate the emergency shield and hold off any enemies!

He couldn't, no, the team couldn't handle another lost paladin. Shiro was harsh, they were lost without him and in their panic, bad decisions and mistakes were made. If they kill or take Pidge... nothing good would come of it.

Something on the monitors flashed and a solar system appeared, his direction was towards a middle planet. From the scans, it was habitable and in its beginning stages of life, the air, pressure, and gravity were all safe. If she somehow fell out of her lion, she would be fine! 

If she wasn't already bleeding or worse. 

No! Stop the bad thoughts! The Lions were nearly indestructible and it would take a lot more than an energy beam and crash landing to destroy them!

The clouds parted as he neared the surface of the planet, then relief flooded him when he saw the Green Lion. Then the relief disappeared when he got closer and noticed the large scorch mark on its side which he initially thought was the Red Lion's shadow as he approached. The disappearance of his relief was replaced with ice as he got even closer and saw the more detailed damage of the Lion. 

He quickly landed Red and made his way as fast as possible to the Green Lion, squeezing between the Lions jaws and crawling into the cockpit. "Pidge?" He asked, a small bit of hope hinting in his voice. He paused before checking over the chair, afraid of the fact that there was no answer. Slowly, he looked over chair, hoping she was just slouched, higher and higher until he saw the bottom of the chair and her glasses nearly folded on them. 

His knees hit the floor, memories flooding through his mind as he remembered finding Shiros cockpit empty, only it felt slightly worse since there was something left behind. "No, no Pidge is-" he choked, fighting back the memories. "She's outside, she must be, she had to check on her Lion, see the damages," he told himself, forcing himself upright and outside, looking for any sign of the small, green paladin. 

He found footprints. More than one pair and not human. His heart sinking further than he thought possible as he followed the footprints and finally stopped at the puddles of scarlet red blood. The fact that they were still so red meant it was spilled recently, very recently since this planet seemed to be mostly desert and could dry it out quickly. He wiped around, searching for any other signs, then finding a small trail of blood. He followed the trail of the small droplets of blood, running as fast as he could without losing the trail. He followed it to an indent in the sand, where a ship had landed, then he looked at the sky and saw the parted clouds, signs of a ship leaving. He didn't notice he had dropped to the ground once again, continuously staring at the sky. 

Until Keith ran towards him, Hunk and Allura close behind him, which they all slowed to a jog once they saw him. 

He couldn't tell them. Words had escaped him and his voice refused to work, the only thing that seemed to work was his tears. There was so much blood, no doubt it was human blood. They took her, they took her like they took her family. 

It was kind of ironic. 

Finally his voice began to work, but he could only croak out, "They took her," over and over. Warm arms wrapped around him, shaking as they did so.

"We'll find her," Keith promised, trying to calm Lance. "We'll find her."

He heard Hunk collapse to the ground, and Allura's muffled crying. 

"Is everything alright? What's going on down there?" Shiro's voice echoed through their helmets. There was no movement, then Hunks voice cut the silence.

"It's my fault," he whispered. "It's my fault she's gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever done something so small that when something big happens, you blame yourself for that small action you took? There's no way to predict what happens when we do such things, what we need to do is keep moving forward in hopes of fixing those past mistakes.


	4. Captive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge wakes up in an unfamiliar place, sees the infamous prince and comes up with a plan for escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a fun chapter, mainly because Pidge is fun to write when she's super salty and comes up with crazy escape plans that remind me of Home Alone.

Ringing echoed through Pidge's head, the aching in her head syncing with the ringing as she tried to force her eyes open. Her eyes hurt as she did so, her vision blurred as they tried to focus, or maybe it was just the dark. Struggling to sit up, she made the observation that the floor was cold and smooth, which meant metal, and that her left leg bristled with pain if she moved it too much. Someone took her armour and replaced them with torn and tattered rags, the idea of someone undressing her made her squirm with discomfort.

Memories slowly etched their way back into her mind. Mainly the really traumatizing ones first before the little details came back to fill them in. The crash, the struggle, getting shot in the fucking leg, then the blackout. The Red Lion must've been a hallucination since she was clearly in a prison cell, and most likely about to be tortured for information on Voltron. She couldn't help but feel guilt as her thoughts went to her friends, and the position she put them in. Disappearing like this, she knew the feeling when her family was taken, as well as the guilt when she realized she left her mom behind, alone.

She left her team in the dark, how could she let that walking L'Oréal commercial take her down so easily and drag her away from her friends? She was furious with so many different things, she was mad at the Galra Prince, she was mad at the Universe, and she was really mad at herself. Anger flared up inside and she kicked the wall, hissing both in pain and fury as she did so.

She stopped kicking the wall, the pain in her leg burning as she slowly curled up in a small ball and dug her fingers into her hair, her nails digging into her head. Ringing filled her ears as she remained still and silent, her mind going numb. 

A click of heels on metal snapped her out of her self pity, the sound getting closer and closer until it stopped, right in front of her. She didn't look up, she refused to give the heel person any satisfaction. "I see you are awake," the voice purred, she recognized it as the Galra prince. "I don't believe we formally met, my name is Lotor, Prince Lotor. And who, little paladin, might you be?"

Pidge decided to look up, only to give his purple ass the most horrible death glare she could muster out of her anger. The daggers she glared would've stabbed right through him and four solid steel walls behind him, she was extremely pissed. The Prince only smirked in response to her glare. "You really don't like me, I guess that's fair," he laughed. One of those, 'I'm so perfect and can do whatever I want' laughs. "But you see, I need your help and in return, I'll help you! I won't hurt a single hair on your head! Well... as long as you cooperate that is." He crouched down to her level and looked at her through the barrier.

She spit at him, the saliva hitting the barrier right in front of his left eye, if only there was nothing in the way, then she could've blinded him in that eye with her spit. She wanted nothing more than to piss him off. Yet his smirk widened as he stood up, and opened the cell door.

Immediately, she jumped to her feet in defence and regretted it, the pain in her leg sparking up and causing her to stumble back against the wall. Lotor stopped near the entrance and tsked at her. "You shouldn't reopen your wounds so quickly, that needs to heal."

"Stay away from me you crazy purple, space elf!" She screamed, cutting him off as he looked up with a grin. 

"That's a new insult," the Prince stated. 

"You will get nothing from me!" She hissed. "Your girlfriend shoots me in the leg, you kidnap me from my team, and now you mock me! You expect me to betray my team because of your false promises, and then you sit there and SMILE!" Every muscle in her body tensed, "We will take down the Galra Empire and free innocents, and I will personally burn that perfect hair right off your head!"

Lotor’s smile never wavered during her outburst, he only looked at the ground and chuckled. Then he got closer and stopped halfway into the cell before looking up and meeting her eye. "I can free your family." Pidge felt her heart stop, she should've known this would happen. "I noticed the little files you've snooped through, and it's quite clear that you are the one who's looking for them. The resemblance is uncanny, if I didn't know, I could easily mistake you for that other human." He got closer, "I'm currently leading the Empire and I could easily release the older human, it would only take a flick of a wrist. Not to mention, I have many resources and can find anything, or anyone, easily." His eyes flickered over her, "attacking me is pointless. You can't overpower me, and if you could, where would you go little mouse? Out in the vacuum of space? There is nowhere to run, and I offer benefits with cooperation." His voice was smooth and promising, her mind screamed trap. She let her shoulders drop in defeat, and the Prince took this as a sign to get closer. "We can start with simple questions. Such as your name! That's all I want, information. Information for your family, a fair trade." Pidge knew she would've taken the deal, but her mind went back to the hard decision to find a new Black Lion Paladin. If she was her former self, she would've taken the deal in a heartbeat, just like she would've left Voltron to find her family. Yet she knew that this deal would hurt more people in the universe, including her Mom back on Earth. Voltron was the only thing standing in the way of Lotor and total domination of the Universe. 

She wasn't about to destroy that hope, she knew her dad would understand. He always believed in the bigger picture, that's why he went to space, to benefit Earth, not just himself.

She launched herself at Lotor, throwing her entire body-weight on the Galra Prince and causing him to stumble back in surprise before catching himself and rebalancing himself. "Did you really think-?" He started, but Pidge was already crawling around him onto his back, digging her grubby little hands into his hair and twisting it around her hands as she got a hold. Her legs wrapped around his chest from under his arms and she dug in her heels. She couldn't help but grin.

"You little pest-" Lotor hissed before she roughly yanked his hair to the side, causing him to stumble in the same direction and out of the cell, while also tearing out a few hairs. "How dare you!" He cried as he tried to reach for her, reaching up and around but only getting bitten when his hands got near her face. "ACXA!" He screamed in frustration.

The blue lady who shot Pidge in the leg turned around the corner and realized the out-of-hand situation. She immediately drew her weapon and aimed at Pidge. "Nuh-Uh!" Pidge tsked and yanked Lotors hair again, causing him to stumble once again. "Shoot at me and you might hit your precious prince!" Acxa hissed and holstered her weapon, but quickly advanced to try and pry off the small human.

Just as Pidge planned.

She yanked Lotor forward at the last moment and he collided heads with Acxa with a sickening 'THUD' and they both dropped to the ground.

The prince's cockiness led him to this, and thank the universe it did. 

She jumped to her feet and chose a direction to run towards, knowing full well that she had no clue where anything was and she would have to depend on luck to guide her to something helpful. Three main ideas popping in her head; Best thing would be an Escape Pod, second best would be the communication controls, and the third best would be the ship controls. In order to find these things, she would have to run in random directions. Hopefully, she was on that smaller ship so there would be less halls and more areas, but it was quite possible she was on a different ship at this point.

The identical hallways didn't help, did the Galra design their ships to be confusing on purpose? Or maybe they weren't that creative. 

The hallway ended with a large-ish door, the control panel beside it. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that it opened the door with some sort of DNA scan. 

That wouldn't do. 

Pidge pried her little fingers under the pad and yanked on it, using all of her weight to do so until it finally tore off, wires keeping it attached to the inside of the wall. Her fingers stung and slightly bled from the constant digging into the panel and yanking, but she focused on the wires, determining which ones would activate the door and which ones kept it closed. 

She dug deeper into the cluster of wires and yanked some more out of the wall, then picked out the different colours until she was left with two. Pulling out one end of each wire, she braced herself and connected the two. 

They sparked and she jumped back, just as the door slide open. Her grin widened as she stepped inside, but vanished when she spotted the lizard lady. A meow echoed beside her and she saw that weird cat staring right at her. The lizard woman stood up and turned around, her hood hiding the upper half of her face. 

Options flashed through her head, ways of attacking the woman or just turning tail and running instead. Why didn't she grab a gun from that Acxa person? Then her eyes landed on the cat, the space feline that seemed to always be with this lady. Which meant that she liked that cat. 

She ran at the cat, which hissed at her and arched its back, its fur standing on end. As she reached for it, it turned away from her and tried to leap out of reach, but she got hold of its tail and yanked it down. The lizard lady was running at her now, so the cat WAS important. She swung the cat at her, which she tried to stop but only got her own cat smashed into her face, sending her spiralling to the ground. "I was always more of a dog person," Pidge grinned as she clapped the cat hair off her hands. She must've hit her pretty hard since she didn't get up, so instead, she shoved the lady and her cat outside of the room and hit the panel on the inside, smashing the screen and causing the door to close. She bought herself some time, hopefully to figure out if this room was any help, if not, there might be something inside it that could be helpful. 

Quickly, she slid into a chair in front of a bunch of technological panels and activated it. Galran text appeared before her and she quickly figured out what it all said, thanks to all her decoding of other Galra files and her learning of Altean language and culture. She realized that Galra and Altean texts were very similar to each other, which made everything a lot more easier to hack. 

Tapping through the texts, she determined that this room held information and communication panels. She could contact Allura! She'd just need to determine coordinates, send them through, then hold her ground until they came! Finally, something was going her way! 

She dug through the different files on the tech, searching for a way to find the coordinates of the ship, then something caught her eye. 

Prisoner Files. She remembered Lotor’s offer and she wondered how he got that information. She tapped on the file and a list appeared, the list contained a number, status, description, species, picture, and location. The first few pictures were very depressing, some of the aliens looking soulless. Maybe her dad was in here...

She brought up a search bar, narrowed the search to species, and began to type. H. The list shortened, more sad aliens. U. Once again the list shortened, some of the pictures showed determined aliens. M. The results didn't change much. A. Everything disappeared, only to show one lonely person. She didn't need to look at the species to know it was what she was looking for.

Her dad looked right at her through the picture, he looked slightly fearful, but she could see the fire of determination in his eyes. His status stated alive. Tears welled up, but she continued to read. 

Number: 40272  
Status: Alive  
Species: Human  
Description: Medium-sized, grey hair, older, cooperative.  
Location: Mine 7983

She found him. She finally found him.

'BANG!' 

Pidge jumped in her seat and looked at the door, they were awake and trying to get in. Crap.

She turned back to the panel and dragged the file to an open message. It connected to the file and she typed in the message address to Allura. To make sure they knew it was from her, she sent a message as well. Something only she would send. 

The banging got louder, and she sent the message, then deleted everything she touched, removing all traces that she was ever on this panel so they couldn't trace it back to Voltron or move her Dad before they got to him. The banging stopped and she swung around to see the door in pieces and Lotor right in her face.

"I guess we have to do this the hard way," he purred. Once again, she was hit in the head, the face this time, with something blunt and hard. Her vision swam, but she couldn't help but smile. 

"They're coming," she hoarsely laughed, lying to him to throw him off. "I told them where we are, and they will come kick your ass!" Everything turned white once again, and she knew Voltron would save her Dad while Lotor tried to avoid something that wasn't even coming. 

She won this battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The funniest thing to think about is how pissy Pidge gets when she sees Lotor's perfect hair. I mean, it's so perfect, why does the villain get perfectly silky hair that I really want to touch to see how soft it truely is. WHAT ARE YOUR SECRETS LOTOR?!


	5. Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge managed to send a message to Voltron, what it contains leaves the team of Voltron with a difficult decision to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Best thing about Pidge: She ain't the damsel in distress. She will do anything to make sure she's the Dragon of the story. This is why she is so badass.
> 
> Thanks again for the Kudos and Comments! I love seeing people scream as Pidge beats the crap out of the bad guys!

"Why won't she accept anyone?" Allura said, strained with stress as she watched Hunk exit the Green Lion and shake his head. He was the last one to try connecting to the Lion, everyone else tried, including Coran. The Green Lion refused to respond to anyone within the castle, Hunk could feel the familiar dread creep back into his mind. Three days. She's been gone for three days, and they all have already begun to work slower without her around.

The first two days had been blind searches for any signs that could have been left behind, each Lion heading in a different direction and scanning for debris or something that could indicate the ships direction or location while Shiro searched the planet surface and Coran sent out scans from the castle. 

Yet, they found nothing. The third day, they had to suck up any pain they felt and admit they needed a Green Lion Paladin to properly find Pidge. Keith hoped that the Black Lion would accept Shiro again while Lance or Allura took over Green, but nothing worked. 

Everyone was tired and worried, there had been little sleep within the last three days and nobody could accept the lingering emptiness that filled the castle. Hunk kept finding himself wandering towards her room and expecting to find her on the floor, wrapped in a blanket and huddled over her laptop as she chugged a cup of some form of liquid caffeine she would somehow be able to find. Every time, he was greeted with an empty room and ended up fiddling with her glasses.

After the discovery of the empty Lion and blood, Keith brought him her glasses, which were neatly folded and well kept. He kept blaming himself, knowing that he borrowed her toolbox and since she was left without tools, she probably left her Lion to find something to help her fix it. Then Lotor showed up and-! His shoulder slammed into the side of the open doors, snapping him out of his inner monologue.

He had to stop himself from thinking of the possibilities, where she was hurt, or if she was dead. Keith was handling it the best out of everyone, Shiro was even more quiet than before and he heard muffled sobs coming from his room every so often. Hunk couldn't blame him, he had been having breakdowns often as well. Without Pidge, he had been trying to do repairs around the castle and picking up on how to find her brother and the resistance group he was with, but her coding was advanced and they way she did things would end up in codes she could only decipher. He couldn't even get near her laptop without having a meltdown, he was a complete mess.

Now, the Green Lion had no pilot, and Voltron couldn't be formed until they find someone to be the Green Paladin. He had begged the Lion to respond, trying to tell it that Voltron needed someone so they could find the original Paladin. Nothing worked, he was forced to leave the Lion and tell Allura that no one could fly Green. How did they let this happen a second time? 

Hunk managed to wander to the Bridge, where he slowly sat on one of the chairs and studied the glasses. Why did he take her? Out of all the Paladins, was she targeted? It was hard to tell what the Galra knew and didn't know, they could have information about all of them and decided that Pidge was the best target.

He wanted his friend back, her team needed their family back together.

Slowly, he put the glasses down beside him and put his head into his hands, unable to stop the tears that flowed freely down his face into his cupped hands. He was supposed to protect her, the Yellow Lion protects their team and he failed them all. He couldn't protect one team member, so how would he be able to protect the universe? Why didn't they take him instead? 

His whole body shook with silent sobs, he felt like an idiot. He should be doing something, tracking ship ID's and cross referencing actions and patterns of Galra ships, not crying like some self-pitied coward. But what could he do? Pidge was always there to pitch in ideas, plans that they would throw back and forth until all loopholes had been filled, he needed someone to review his plans and engineering. To make sure nothing would backfire.

A ping sounded from a console, and he looked up, confused. It came from the message console, but messages only came from the Lions and allies. Was a planet in danger? 

He got up and pushed down his self-pity, walking towards the console and opening it up to look at the new message. The ship ID address was unfamiliar, and he feared that the Galra were setting something up. He opened the message, determined to see if it was or if it was a distress call. 

He found an attached file and a message, written in Galra. Frowning, he activated the castles automatic translating system and the Galra text began to change to Altaen. Which still wasn't extremely helpful. He could only pick out some words, so he turned around to find Allura.

As luck would have it, she walked into the room just as he was about to leave to find her. "Hunk! What are you doing in here?" She asked. The bags under her eyes suggested lack of sleep, and she looked like she was about to attempt another search for Pidge.

"Sulking. Being sad," Hunk answered honestly. "But this weird message popped up and I can't read it, I was going to look for you to see if you could read it."

"Weird message? Weird how?" Allura asked, her step picking up as they walked to the communication console.

"I don't recognize the ship ID, and the text is Galra, maybe the Blade of Marmora?" Hunk suggested.

They stopped at the displayed message and Allura scanned through the text, her eyes slowly widening as she read it. She froze, and Hunk grew afraid that it was some sort of ransom or death threat. She then suddenly activated the castle intercoms, "Team, get to the bridge immediately."

Panic flooded through Hunks systems, "What did it say? Something bad?" Allura didn't look at him, but she was staring at the message, more specifically, the unopened attached file. He suddenly thought of the worst possibility, what if it was a threat from Lotor, and pictures of a tortured Pidge were in the file? "Allura! What is in that message?!" Hunk suddenly snapped, fear gripping his heart.

Shiro, Keith, Lance, and Coran burst into the room. "Are we under attack?" Shiro asked.

"Sit down please," the Princess requested. They looked at her, questions seeming to flood their heads, then they looked to Hunk, who shrugged in return. "Please," she begged. With quick looks to each other, they all sat down, including Hunk. She slowly walked over to the message, and began to speak.

"'Found this while attempting to escape, I couldn't find my coordinates but I'm sure you can find his. Please get him before the Prince of Perfect Hair decides to use him as way to break me. I'm alive, not extremely well but I'll survive. I bit two people, extremely satisfying, as well as pissed some of them off. They want Voltron secrets, but I don't kiss and tell. Get Matt and Dad. Don't let them use them against me. To prove I'm me, Lance sleeps with a stuffed shark named Poyo and Hunk accidentally buried his first hamster named Oreo while it was hibernating because he was eight and thought it was dead. -Pidge'. The file attached to the message is a record of her Father with his location." She finished.

Everyone sat in silence, not knowing what to say or do. A giggle rose in Hunks throat, then he burst out half laughing and half crying. It took a few moments to calm himself down, but he looked up with a smile, "I've only told Pidge and my cousin that, she's alive." She was fighting back, and she was alive. The tightness in his chest loosened a bit, and he looked over to Allura, then to Shiro and Keith.

"What do we do now? Do we go after her Dad like she asked, or do we track the message and find her?" Coran asked.

Keith looked to Hunk and Lance, "What do you two think? I didn't know her as well as you guys, and this is a team decision."

Hunk felt his need to find Pidge as quickly as possible slowly take over the other option, but he let himself think logically. They could try and find Pidge, but that could take time and by then, they may have already moved her Dad and used him against her. Not to mention, if they find the message location, there is no telling that the ship would still be there. He felt the begging in the message, her need for them to save her Dad, the person she's been looking for for a year. Looking to Lance, they came to a silent agreement.

"We find her Dad, like she asked, she'd kill us all if we didn't respect her request," Hunk announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time to find Dad! We keep losing dads. Shiro is worked up because he can't stop thinking about how much she looks like Matt and how he failed to protect the team. Everyone misses smol salty child.


	6. In a Worse Position

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge awakens once again in a cell, only a little bit more restrained as well as with a new cell mate!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have way too much motivation for this. I drew a picture of Pidge before I even STARTED this fiction. Which I'll post once I get to 'THE' chapter.
> 
> The prisoner is a little cameo of a character I made which is part of what I call 'The Galactic Assholes'. Basically they are space pirates who are space assholes and huge assholes. Get it? Galactic?? 
> 
> I'll let myself out now.

Everything was cold, specifically her shoulder, wrists, and ankles. There was a weight on her wrists and ankles, something that clattered when she moved, as well as restricted a lot of her movement. Her leg still hurt, less but still burning if she moved it too much. Her eyes slowly opened, the familiar ache pulsing in the back of her head, as well as a new throbbing on the bridge of her nose. It was still dark in the cell, and it took a few moments to let her eyes adjust. She made a guess that they chained her arms and legs to make sure she didn't attempt another 'Ratatouille' attack. What was new was the, thing, on her face. It covered her lower face, starting at the bottom of her chin and stopping just over the tip of her nose. Straps held it firmly in place which was wrapped around her head. 

They MUZZLED her. Dick move.

Well, she did bite a lot of aliens, mostly Lotor, she got him about three times before he called for his guard.

She tested her chains by trying to kick them as well as flail her arms around, which was extremely awkward due to the fact that they were chained together behind her and her face was basically rubbing the ground. "You're awake." Pidge froze, she didn't recognize that voice. "You must be really dangerous to be so badly restrained," it spoke again. Looking around, she found the source of the voice came from an alien in the same cell. So either this was a different cell which was possibly on a different ship, or she just recently got a new roommate. They looked really bad, not because they were an alien, but because they were covered in cuts and bruises. They were a weird looking alien, very lizard-like. It reminded Pidge of an Iguana. 

"Well, I did bite a few people," she sighed as she squirmed into a sitting position. A raspy laugh came from her cellmate, matching her scratchy voice.

"I should have tried that, I could've taken a hand with me before they whacked me on they head. I like you," the space Iguana laughed. "The name is Kaii, captain of the Galactic Pirates. Hell knows where my crew is. You are a human, right?"

"How'd you know that?" Pidge asked, liking this new cellmate but remaining cautious.

"I visited the planet a few times, one of the few who don't know about aliens yet. Very peaceful in some parts, mostly deadly. How do humans live in places with active volcanos? Don't they know it'll erupt one day?" She asked.

Pidge grinned, "Us humans tend to be very stubborn."

"Stubborn, or stupid? I'm told I'm both!" She grinned. "So little human, how did you end up in a cell of the Galra Empire? Did they finally reach Earth?" 

"No, I... got on an alien ship back on Earth and ended up on this side of the Galaxy," Pidge explained as vaguely as she could.

"Ah, say no more. I get the rest, Galra showed up and you resisted them, right?" She asked, leaning her head against the wall.

"Yep. What about you, great space pirate?" Pidge asked, a bit curious about the space iguana.

"Well, I tried to rob one of their ships, and I almost pulled it off too! But that damn Druid noticed the missing materials and shot my ship out of the sky. My crew and I landed on a planet in the disaster of my ship and we tried to make a run for it, then their little foot shoulders showed up and knocked me out. I can only hope that my crew escaped them," she trailed off. "I think I'm about to be sent to their gladiator rings, since I have no information about this 'Voltron' they keep asking." 

Pidge kept herself from flinching at the word, instead she decided to ask more about the crew. "So, how many people are on this crew?" 

Kaii perked up, "well, there are four others. A small crew, but very efficient. First is Xavier, a skinny, blue Alrictica, he's the strategist of my group. A bloody coward but he knows when to step up and do something, even if he's screaming the whole time." 

"What's a... Alrictica?" Pidge asked, unable to picture what he may look like.

"Right! Earthling, you don't know all the aliens. Well, lets see... you know Earth snakes? Well he has a snake body as legs basically, with three huge fins on his head, one on both sides of his head and one on the top, that all connect. Then he has these weird tentacle-like eyebrows that connect to the three fins. Scrawny face, and slits on his face for a nose. No clothing, he's always nude," she laughed.

"I think I can imagine it," Pidge said, tipping her head.

"Well, then there's Flick. We don't know what they are, but then again, neither do they. Big bulky alien, five eyes that form an arc on his face, elephant like feet, and lots of tentacles, actual tentacles. They have one on each shoulder, one for each ear, three forming their hand and six on their back that wrap around their body when they aren't using them. Very big softy, keeps us from killing each other. Usually cooks and such. Our muscle is a moth alien we call Maggie. She looks a lot like a humanoid Oak silk Moth, not those crappy human movie versions where she's sexy with big boobs, like an actual moth. She's excitable, likes to jump out of things and is very optimistic. She may not be able to understand big things right away, but give her time and she always pulls through. Finally, my weapons expert is called Comet. He showed up one day and asserted himself, he wears this helmet that covers his face and four separate fins, two on each side. Cool robot legs, goo arms and a galaxy sweater he stole from Earth. Dude never talks, he ‘speaks’ through text that shows up on his helmet. He knows a lot and fixes almost everything, though he's extremely mysterious, in a fun way," she said, her entire body relaxed. Talking about her crew seemed to make this alien much happier, like when a mother talks about her children. 

"It sounds like you really care for them," Pidge sighed. 

"Of course! They're my family, a family I trust to take care of themselves," she smiled. "What about you earthling? Any family back on earth?” 

Pidge sat forward, looking at the ground. "My mom is still there, probably thinking all her family is dead. The Galra took my brother and Dad, so I went to look for them... then that alien ship took me away from earth before I got to tell my mom what was happening. I just feel so... so guilty..."

"Why do you feel guilty? It isn't your fault," Kaii said.

"But I put her in such a horrible position! And now I did it again with my team-!" Pidge stopped talking, realizing she let too much information slip.

She slowly looked at Kaii, who just smiled. "Don't worry, we all have secrets. Secrets we want to keep from the Galra." Pidge felt herself smile.

Steps echoed the hallways and the cell opened up, two Galra soldiers stepped in and headed for Kaii, who jumped to her feet as he long tail snapped from side to side in defence. A long hiss escaped her lips when their stride didn't waver. Pidge could only watch at they zapped her with a long metal stick and she dropped to the ground. The two guards quickly dragged her out of the cell, Kaii looked over at Pidge weakly and winked, whispering, "keep fighting little human," before being dragged around the corner out of sight.

Even though she just met the space pirate, she couldn't help but worry for her. She hoped the alien iguana would find her crew, just as she hoped she'd see Hunk and Lance again. As well as Shiro and Keith, especially Matt and her Dad. And Mom. She wanted to see her mom again and apologize for disappearing, to see her smile as she brought Matt and Dad home. 

She wanted to go home.

The familiar click of heels stopped her thoughts, as well as some new footsteps. Great, now the Heir of High Heels is going to mock her.

"I made a mistake, and that mistake was underestimating you," he started speaking when in view, stopping in front of her personalized cell but not looking at her. Two new people were with him, they weren't part of his earlier posè this time. These aliens had cloaks and freaky masks, they looked almost familiar. "I believed I was in control, that I had you cornered and that you accepted that fact. But you surprised me, in more ways than one," Lotor continued. "I guess that's why I like you." She didn't like that tone, it was a creepy and pervert type of tone and she didn't like it one bit. "You take me out, as well as my commanding officer, by using our strength against us. You use Narti's cat to catch her off guard and take her out as well, then, you send a message I can't find. My team can't find out what you did on our consoles, and neither can the Druids. We can't track whatever you did, and so we had no choice but to believe what you said and go through swift measures to change our location." Lotor stared at the wall like he was waiting for something to burst through it while he explained it all, then he looked at her with hungry eyes. Pidge felt her a chill run up her spine as he did so and squirmed towards the wall. "The skill you hold has great potential, and the Druids and I discussed some very intriguing... experiments."

Pidge's blood turned to ice, she now understood why those cloaked creatures seemed familiar, Shiro told them about these things. Those Druids experimented on Shiro and replaced his arm with the synthetic one. They were going to experiment on her. Quickly, she threw herself against the back wall, facing the three enemy aliens as she felt her body shake with fear she couldn't suppress. "Hell no, don't you fucking try it!" She hissed. "I've seen what you assholes do! I won't let you-!" 

"Won't let us? You have no choice in the matter," Lotor interrupted. "No need to worry though, my dear. First, we are going to do everything necessary to get any information about Voltron from that pretty little head of yours. Tomorrow of course, so have a good rest, you'll need it," he laughed with a sly smile before walking away with the two Druids. 

She wouldn't be able to tell when tomorrow was, and she knew Lotor knew that. She desperately racked her brain for escape plans or other ways to get out of her situation. 

Everything she thought of needed her to be out of these shackles, she was trapped. She couldn't get out of this, not this time. 

 

Something shimmered on the floor where Kaii used to sit, and she remember the space lizards words. ‘Keep fighting’. She shuffled over to the object, extremely awkwardly since she was shackled up pretty badly. 

It was a long and thin scale, one that was on the Space Pirate! Flipping around, she managed to grab it with her grubby little hands and get a feel of what it could do. New plans flooded her mind and she couldn't help the smile that crept its way back to her face. Seconds ago, she had almost given up and would've just accepted her fate. Now she had a way to get these stupid-ass restraints off and actually do something.

Prince of High Heels and perfect hair, prepare to face Pidge, the terrifying little shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave Pidge a weapon. This is either a good or bad thing. Maybe both?
> 
> Idk. More feels up ahead.


	7. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, Pidge met an interesting space pirate and had a nice chat, then found a little something interesting after she was dragged away by guards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is just so much fun. Thank you all again for the support and love for this story as well!

She jolted awake when she heard something entering the cell, she must've passed out after picking the lock on her chains and planning her escape. Quickly focusing on the environment around here, she noticed a drone guard walking towards her. She held her hands behind her back, glaring at the soldier and making sure he didn't notice the lack of restraints. She left the muzzle on for extra effect, waiting until the robot was close enough. It reached for her and she jumped forward, whipping out the long and surprisingly sharp scale and driving it into the gut of the robot. Twisting it, she heard wires snap the the robot beep with confusion. Yanking the scale out and ducking under it, she spun around and kicked it hard in the back, sending it sprawling to the ground. "Ha! Take that you piece of shit robot! You asswipes need to stop underestimating the great and powerful Pidge!" She laughed.

An elbow slammed into the back of her neck and she choked out a gasp before hitting the ground and dropping her weapon, two other soldiers being quick to grab her arms and drag her out of the cell. She kicked and screamed at them, unable to pull out of their grip as she did so. Her plan just went up in flames, why didn't she check for other guards?! 

She tasted copper in the back of her throat, everything around her looking like a blur as she was dragged down a maze of hallways. There were too many twists and turns to keep track, and it took a moment for her to realize they stopped in a small room. Being yanked upright, new cuffs attached her to an upright table. The moment the guards let go, she felt her body drop slightly and an uncomfortable tug in both her shoulders. 

Small room with weird tools and restraints to keep her from moving to much? She couldn't help but remember what Lotor told her earlier, mainly the threat of interrogation, which led to torture, and experimentation. Her body shook unwillingly, fear coursing through her as she suddenly became away of everything happening in the room. She wasn't ready for this, she couldn't endure what Shiro did, she didn't have his strength. She was the cunning one, the one who made crazy plans that worked most of the time so she could avoid these types of things. Her mind failed to think, the only thoughts running through her head being 'run' and 'escape'! Her mind refused to actually think up of any plan to achieve 'run' and 'escape'.

The soldiers left the room, leaving her in an unsettling silence. She tried tugging at the cuffs, only succeeding in swinging herself into the metal slab she was cuffed to in the first place. She looked around the room more carefully, only she managed to spot all the weird and dangerous looking tools in the area. 

Her stomach flipped and she began to feel nauseous, the images of those tools in use forming in her mind. She needed to calm down, panicking leads to stupid things done and said.

The door slid open and the Prince himself walked into the room, followed by a Druid. The fear didn't go away.

"Alright little mouse, lets see if we can handle this like civilized people and not resort to extreme measures," he purred while leaning towards her.

She spat at him, this time it landed straight on his cheek. "Fuck you," she hissed. The Galra Prince frowned and leaned away from Pidge, wiping the spit off his face.

"I'll let you know, the Druids have only experimented on male humans, specifically the Champion. You are the first female we have encountered, and based on other species we've encountered, there are usually differences between the two. In other words, they are about to have a lot of fun seeing what the difference in humans are," he slowly said, not meeting her eyes. He then turned around, grinning as he saw her pale. "Of course, I can prevent that from happening, if you just cooperate. Let me try this one more time. What is your name Paladin?" 

"My... my name..." Pidge stuttered, looking at the ground. She swallowed her fear, shoving every stray thought to the back of her mind and looking Lotor right in the eye. "Go shove a balmera up your ass."

Lotor's perfect composure cracked and shattered, his hands clenching to fists as his face contracted with anger. Then, he swung and punched her right in the face, his hair falling messily in front of his face. She spit the blood forming in her mouth onto the floor, looking at Lotor with the biggest shit-eating grin possible. "I finally pissed you off, I'm not very cooperative when it comes to quiznacking dickweeds like you," she grinned.

She saw the Prince tense again, pausing for a good few moments before straightening up and pushing the stray hairs back into place. "Do what you must," he said to the Druid before walking out, avoiding her eyes as he did so. She humiliated him, she knew that look so well, she outsmarted him and he was very pissy about it, all she had to do was press the right buttons to make him snap. She turned her attention to the Druid that faced her, the mask covering its face and hiding any emotion. "Just you and me mask-face," she grinned.

The Druid pulled a lever, and pain suddenly coursed through her body, extending to every nerve in her system. Arching her back to try and get away from the pain didn't help, and she couldn't stop herself from screaming from the pain. As soon as it started, it stopped. The tingle of pain pinching at every small movement, including breathing. Sometimes, you try to imagine pain, but it never really prepares you for the real thing. "Who are you?" The Druid asked, its voice muffled by the mask. "What do you do in Voltron?"

"Eat a dick," she hissed. The pain flared up again, she screeched as her hands clenched and unclenched, trying to find something to stop it. Then it stopped again, almost as quickly as before.

"Where is Voltron? What is its weaknesses?" The Druid asked. Words failed to form, the best she could do was spit blood at it and flip it off.

She couldn't keep track of how many times that thing electrocuted her, or when she ran out of insults and ended up randomly babbling Star Wars lines. Time began to blur together and the ringing in her ears slowly grew louder and louder, she eventually mostly felt like static. Sometimes she could see everything clearly, and other times everything was black. 

At some point, her memories became jumbled, and she couldn't pinpoint why she was in that room, experiencing such horrendous pain. Then she would remember, and feel the fear of forgetting about her family.

Sometimes the Druids weren't there, and she would try to remember Matts face. Her fear grew as she began to forget her friends faces, their smiles disappearing on a blank background.

There were a lot of questions asked by the Druids, she couldn't remember them, or process them, but she remembered the shocks. That meant she didn't tell them what they wanted.

What did they want again? The numbness in her head didn't provide answers.

A weird Druid showed up after a long amount of time, or maybe it was a short amount? She couldn't pinpoint how long she had been in this small room. The Druid wore a hooded cloak with weird patterns, and it was talking. 

She couldn't seem to process these sounds into words, or figure out if it was directed to her or someone else.

Something pricked her neck, and warmth filled her being, chasing the pain away. She welcomed the warmth, and slipped away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up buttercups, they gonna do something to Pidge.


	8. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see what Team Voltron is up too while Pidge struggles in her own situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter was a dousy! And thank you all again for the amazing comments! I keep squealing when I see a new comment, ready to see what it says! Enjoy this chapter!

The Black lion blasted through the small drones, slicing through them like butter. Allura and Lance hung back and held off the extra drones that would spill out of the caves while Hunk followed Keith towards the ground. 

After receiving the message, Hunk had searched through all the Galra files they had on hand, while also searching non-stop for outside information. Then he came running two and a half days after and announced he found the Mine's location, and they immediately set out to the given coordinates, taking an extra day to get to the mines in order to avoid any Galra ships and cause suspicion. As well as come up with a plan, which was mostly sneak in, light up the place and free anyone there, and sneak out.

The mine didn't have as much security as they expected, making it easier than usual to fly in, but the endless drones posed a bit of an issue, so Lance and Allura agreed to stay behind and keep them occupied. 

The Black and Yellow Lions landed with ease, more soldiers emerged from the mines and began shooting at the lions. To avoid hitting any innocents, Hunk and Keith left their lions and activated their bayards. "How many soldiers do they have on this planet?" Hunk yelled as he wielded his Cannon form bayard and blasted the herds of robotic soldiers to pieces.

“Enough to keep anyone from leaving, there must be a lot of prisoners on this planet." Keith suggested as he smoothly glided through the ranks, cutting them down with his sword.

"What are they even digging up on this planet?" Hunk asked as the last of the robotic guards were cut down by Keith.

"Probably ore, to build their ships," Keith said as he holstered his weapon and looked around. "It may take awhile to find Pidge's Father, this planet is huge and I don't even know what he looks like." Hunk looked into the mines then back at Keith.

"Well, aren't Shiro and Pidge's Dad and Brother the only humans the Galra ever captured? If anything, we look for the only human and we should be able to find him," he stated. Keith nodded, making sense of that logic. They couldn't help the silence that fell between them. "Keith... do you think Pidge will be alright?" Hunk asked, his voice wavering. "I want to trust that she can handle herself, but... I'm scared they will do something to her, like they did to Shiro."

Keith looked at the ground, then he walked over to Hunk and placed his hand on his shoulder while giving him the most reassuring smile he could muster up. "I don't know what they do, and I want to trust the Pidge knows what she's doing," he couldn't hold the smile anymore. "But we can't forget what the Galra Empire has done, and what they can and will do. I don't doubt that they will try to do something to her, but..." Keith paused, taking in a steady breath. "But I believe Pidge will make it through. The faster we get any leverage the Galra empire has against her away from them, the faster we can find a way to get Pidge back," Keith reassured. Hunk looked over at him and gave a small smile, but his eyes still showed his emotional pain. He activated his radio and called the castle, "Coran, send down some ships to my location, Hunk and I are going to go bring back some of the prisoners to send back to the castle."

With that, they entered the dark caves and began to look around for any signs of life. The first aliens they met were deep within the mine, Keith had to convince them that they could leave as most of them thought it was a trick. After convincing them, he had Hunk lead them back to the entrance.

Keith continued deeper into the mines alone, directing lone aliens out of the mine and sometimes showing them he had a sword and they better get going to the exit. Then he saw a human, he was tall with greying hair while dressed in Galra prisoner rags. He was hunched over something, and Keith slowly approached. "Mr. Holt?" He asked.

The man spun around, a metal contraption in his hands, which he quickly hid behind his back and narrowed his eyes. "Who are you, and how do you know my name?" It took Keith a moment to realize he was squinting like he couldn't see that well.

"My name is Keith sir, I'm part of Voltron, as well as from earth," he explained calmly, holding his hands gently in front of him as he approached the older man. 

"Earth?" He slowly said, looking around. "I must be dreaming, nobody knows I'm here."

"This isn't a dream, Pidge found you and we came at her request to save you from the Galra," Keith said when he was close enough for the older man to see him.

"Pidge?" He asked, seeming confused.

"Sorry, we call her Pidge, Katie found you and sent us," he restated.

Sam Holt suddenly grabbed him by his shoulders, shocking Keith at the sudden movements. "Katie?! Why is Katie here? Did the Galra make it to Earth and take her too?" He demanded. 

"No! They haven't made it to Earth, please, let me help you out of here and I can explain everything," Keith begged, trying to avoid telling him the truth about where Pidge was at the moment until he was in the castle. Sam paused, then let go of Keith and nodded.

"Alright, alright," he sighed, then looked at the device he dropped when he shook Keith. "To think someone actually came..."

"Head to the entrance, I'll join you shortly after searching the rest of this mine," Keith said with a nod.

"No need, I'm the only one this deep, trying to keep out of sight of the guards," Sam said, "Guards that seem to have disappeared..." 

Keith smiled, "like I said, we came to save you."

The pair made their way out of the mines, Sam blinking rapidly when leaving the cave and looking around in the light. He froze when he saw the two lions sitting near two shuttles full of free prisoners. Hunk waved them over, and Keith led Sam over to him as he continued to stare at the Lions. 

"You found him!" Hunk smiled. He then leaned closer to Keith, "Did you tell him yet?"

"Not until we get to the castle," Keith said.

"Tell me what?" Sam suddenly said, causing both of them to jump. 

"Just uh..." Hunk trailed off.

"If you wanted to ride in the lion with me back to the castle?" Keith filled in.

His expression lit up, "ride in that thing? That would be wonderful! New alien ship which I won't be dragged around in!"

Leading him back to Black, they both got on and made the short trip to the castle, which was bustling with aliens from the prison mines. 

Keith took Sam to the bridge where he met the other Paladins. "We managed to get everyone off the planet! Coran says all the scans are positive to go Lance chirped as Keith walked in. 

Shiro turned around and noticed Sam, freezing for a millisecond before smiling. "Sam," he smiled.

"Shiro!" Sam yelped and ran towards him, tackling him in a hug. "I thought they killed you! If you're alive, does that mean Matt is too? Where is he? And the Mullet boy said Katie is here too!" 

Shiro expression immediately changed from relieved to crushed, Keith could tell that he may need to step in for the explanation. "Mr. Holt, Pidge- Katie, found you but not on this ship..." he started as Sam turned to him.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You... may need to sit down," Keith said.

"She's not dead is she?!" He suddenly cried. "Tell me she isn't dead!" His face was contrasted with worry and fear.

"She was taken by Galra, a week ago. Four days ago, she sent us a message containing information on where you are, and a request to find you before they tried to use you against her," Keith stated. Sam swayed and Shiro had to catch him to prevent him from collapsing.

"My little girl... first Matt and now Katie..." he whimpered.

"Uh, if it helps, we are getting close to finding Matt," Hunk suddenly said. “In fact, he may be part of a resistance type group? Possibly? Pidge found a video of him escaping and was extremely close to pinpointing his location.”

“Escaped? Resistance? Pidge?” He stuttered, unable to process everything. 

“We should take him to a guest room to let him rest,” Keith suggested, slowly growing afraid of giving this man a heart attack.

“I'll lead him,” Shiro volunteered. “We can catch up a little as we do so, and it may help to have someone familiar explain it all in a slower manner.”

“Thanks Shiro,” Keith sighed as the two left the room. Everyone fell into an uneasy silence, and he didn't know how to break it.

“This feels incomplete without Pidge,” Lance said, breaking the silence and speaking what everyone was thinking. Finding her family, that was Pidge's biggest goal. She worked so hard to find them, even making tough decisions that led to her putting Voltron above them.

He even half expected her to waltz in at any given moment, a smirk on her face and her eyes flashing mischievously. Telling a tale of how she kicked Lotor's ass and insulting his hairstyle choices. Yet the halls remained empty, Voltron was left lacking a Paladin, and nobody knew how to fill the hole she left behind.

“Hunk, we need you to find out Matt's location, he may be our last chance in finding Pidge,” Keith ordered. 

“I…” he hesitated, his voice quivering with doubt. Then, it was swallowed by determination, “I'm on it! We… We will find Pidge!” He shouted, and ran out of the room.

Keith had no doubt that they would find her, the only thing he was afraid of was the condition they would find her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They found Sam! Yay them! 
> 
> It just goes downhill from here for Pidge. I mean STRAIGHT down, a 90 degree angle drop. It's crazy. It's great.


	9. Experimentation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor Reveals what he has planned for our Green Paladin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor smol green bean.
> 
> I am enjoying this greatly. It's fun to hurt Pidge. 
> 
> Guess what?
> 
> DOUBLE CHAPTER

"Well Haggar?" Lotor asked as he stared at the small woman. "We won't be getting any information out of this Paladin, the torture isn't working and our only leverage has just been taken away from us." He finally figured out what that little human did the first time she made a little escape attempt. She sent out a message to her buddies, but not of their location. Instead, she sent the location of the only person they could use against her and had them save him before he could use him. Clever girl. He couldn't shake the desire to use the human, to see the Paladins of Voltron be destroyed by one of their own. Yes, they had the Champion clone sent out to infiltrate them, but it wasn't as sweet as the real thing turning on their team. "Humans are interesting subjects, adaptable. The champion was able to accept all types of blood, making it easy to experiment on. This human is... different," Hagger whispered. "Different how? What have your little blood samples shown?" Lotor asked. "Blood is important when it comes to these things, quintessence sometimes rejects the host if not properly infused. The problem is that her pure human blood won't accept the quintessence, as well as rejects our Galra samples to properly infuse the quintessence," Hagger explained. "Then why not use your blood? You aren't Galra," Lotor suggested. Hagger thought a moment. "It is possible..." she hustled over to her table covered in blood samples and failed combinations. She took a vial and dropped the blood within it into a small dish, then took out a small dagger and sliced the tip of her finger. A small drop of blood formed and she dropped it into the dish. Lotor watched her as she proceeded to watch the blood closely, interested in what she might discover. She slowly leaned away from the blood and looked at him with a huge smile. "It's a match, the blood finally accepts it, and therefore will accept the quintessence." "Good," Lotor said with a smirk. "I only have one more question, what is it that you want us to do to her?" She asked, gently moving the dish aside and walking back towards Lotor. "Do you want something similar to the Champion?" "No," Lotor suddenly snapped at her. "That was my Father's project, this is my project!" He took a steady breath, calming himself. "I want her entire body to flow with the power, for it to run through her veins, can you do that?" He asked. "Of course, anything else?" Hagger asked. "A way to control her, so we can break her without her fighting back," Lotor said. "We can't have another experiment run free, now can we?" Hagger grinned, "I have just the idea of what we can do." ------------------------ The Druids dragged the human into the room and dropped her harshly on the table chest down, then strapped down her arms and legs to prevent any unnecessary movement. She didn't make any noise as they did so. Lotor, who was already in the room, frowned at the harsh treatment. He didn't need the human dying before they finished the experiment. “So what is it that we are adding?” Lotor asked Haggar as she entered the room as well. He assumed that the odd position was related to additions they were about to add. “After some discussions with the Druids, we agreed upon a blueprint that will give full control over her entire structure while also adding power,” she explained as she walked over to the Paladin. After the interrogation, he reviewed the footage recording the conversation between her and the alien sharing her cell. There wasn't any information about Voltron, she was smart enough not to let anything slip, but he did finally learn her name after her second escape attempt when she mocked the guard she took down. Pidge. An odd name. “And what is this blueprint of?” He asked, looking over the small woman and looking at the spread open piece of paper. “We attach metal plates to her spine. One per three vertebrae, concluding in eleven plates running down her back. In each plate, there will be three drills that attach to the individual vertebrae,” Haggar explained as she pointed at the individual pictures and instructions. “This project is risky, human spines are tougher than most other alien spines but still delicate, the slightest miscalculation will render her useless. Do you still want to go through with it?” “Do you even need to ask?” Lotor questioned, his grin growing. “I see. I suggest we wipe her memory as well, as you said, she won't give any more information and we can't risk her waking up and using the power against us,” Haggar insisted. “No,” Lotor replied. “No?” Haggar asked. “You do realize that if she recognizes her power, she could use it against us!” “I want to break her first. I want to see her look at me with broken eyes, I want her to NEED me! To see that I am the only way in helping her get what she wants,” he hissed. “When I send her against Voltron, I want her to choose me over them. Am I clear?” Haggar glared at him, then hissed out a, “Yes sire,” through clenched teeth. This plan was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo, looks like there is no escaping this tight spot!
> 
> Well, maybe, because Lotor is really stubborn and it might just lead to his downfall.


	10. Rebellion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge discovers what they did to her, and decides to tell them to 'go Fuck themselves'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS MY FAVOURITE CHAPTER, I SHIT YOU NOT, I HAVE HAD A DRAWING READY FOR THIS DAY. HOO I FINALLY MADE IT.

I drew what her back looks like/ the cover of this story maybe [here!](https://that-one-mod.tumblr.com/post/165028674984)

 

Pain. Everything hurt. Why did everything hurt?

Was it from the constant electrocution? No, that pain was different, it had a tingle to the pain, like static.

This was stabby pain, like someone stabbed her with a knife covered in salt, everywhere.

Attempting to move was a huge mistake, that just made everything flare up and hurt even more than when she was just laying face-first on the ground. Where was it all coming from? Was she dead?

She tried to focus, find the source, get away from it. With small movements, she noted everything stung equally, but the closer the moved joint was to her back, the more in pain that area was. Something was hurting her back, which then hurt the rest of her. What kind of torture machine was this?

She reached for her back, expecting to feel something sitting on her back. Instead, it was cool and smooth, feeling it without pressing to hard, it felt like a metal plate. It was weird.

She felt higher, realizing that there were more and they overlapped each-other, all in a straight line. Down her spine.

"What did they do?" She gasped, realizing that when she pressed on it slightly, the pain increased dramatically. She felt it start at her neck, a smooth bar like slab of metal, and went down her back, multiple metal plates shaped like diamonds going down her back and ending at the tip of her spine.

She tugged at one of the plates and she choked out a gasp of pain, the action feeling like she was just stabbed in the bone. Tears prickled her eyes at she looked at the blood in her hands, her blood.

"Like your upgrade?" Pidge's head snapped up and saw the Bastard Prince smirking at her.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!" She shrieked, her voice cracking with anger and pain. She felt warm tears spill down her cheeks. "How could you-!" She cried.

"I DID say the Druids enjoy their experiments," Lotor said with a shrug. "You made this decision the moment you refused to cooperate."

"You SICK Bastard!" Pidge hissed. "You made me into some sort of LAB RAT! You have the AUDACITY to blame this on ME-!"

"I see you're upset. Maybe getting a clear look at your new beauty will put you at ease," he purred.

"Beauty?!" She screamed, "THIS METAL...- THING!! On my BACK is BEAUTIFUL TO YOU?!"

"Oh my dear, that isn't your only change," he smiled, then slid a small mirror towards her. "Take a look small one."

She didn't want to listen to him, to follow his rules. But she couldn't help the worry creep in the back of her mind, what other changes was he talking about?

Reluctantly, she took the mirror, making sure to give him her best death glare before looking into the mirror. She saw her own face pale, or what looked kinda like her face. It was the same, but different.

Her eyes threw her off, but so did the markings below her eyes. Her eyes were yellow irises with flecks of brown, her pupils a medium bright green. The markings under her eyes were identical to Coran and Alluras, only they were green. Turning her head to the side, she saw her ears were thankfully unchanged, but something else caught her eye. White strands of hair, with a twist of her head, she saw a thick white streak of white hair in the back of her head. She couldn't see the metal device on her back, but she didn't want to see it, she was afraid of what she'll see. Instead, her hand unwillingly dropped the mirror and it shattered once it hit the ground. "You..." her voice trembled. "You son of a fuck..." she hissed, her body shaking. She then jumped to her feet, causing Lotor to stumble back but still smiling ear to ear. "UNDO THIS NOW! TURN ME BACK TO NORMAL!" She shrieked.

"It can't be done," he laughed. "That there is permanent, interesting what happens to humans when you physically mix their blood with alien blood! I never would have predicted such changes, quite interesting changes though. Must be exclusive to Altaen blood since the Champion didn't react this way to Galra blood."

She couldn't believe this, this had to be reversible! Right?

Lotor was lying, he was lying to get in her head.

"You liar," she whispered.

"What was that?" He asked, letting his grin widen even more.

"You. LIAR!" She screamed, swinging her arms out of anger, only she felt a tingle and something glowed. A blade of energy, shaped in the arc of her swing, flew at the Prince, causing him to duck to avoid the sudden burst. She froze, slowly looking at her arm and watching her glowing veins fade back to normal.

"Quiznack, she already is starting to activate it," Lotor whispered, causing Pidge to look from her arm to him.

"Activate... it?" She whimpered, stepping back. Guards appeared, a lot of them, including Lotor's little crew, causing the fear already forming in her to spike.

"Shut her down for now, we're doing the memory wipe," he ordered the colourful lady of his crew.

The main thing that caught her attention from that order was the words 'memory wipe', and the fear from the interrogation torture mixed in with her current fear. "No..." she whispered. "No, don't make me forget them." Her voice had grown hoarse as she backed away from the approaching alien, some sort of device in her hands. "Anything but that!" Her back hit the wall. "Not them!" Memories flashed in front of her, smiling faces from her family, as well as her team in Voltron. She couldn't lose that, it was all she had left! The colourful woman was in front of her, reaching out and about to grab her.

Adrenaline suddenly flowed through her, numbing the stabbing pain she felt from before. "NO!" She shrieked, the tingling feeling covering her entire body and then a wave of energy bursted out around her and sent the alien flying back and hitting the ground hard with a grunt. A new idea popped in her head, she had a weapon now. She had a weapon and a new means of escape, once again Lotor made the mistake of wanting to see her broken before making her vulnerable.

She looked at her clenched fists and swallowed the lump in her throat. In order for this to work, she needed to use this thing attached to her back, the ones the Galra put on her. Then she smiled at the irony, their own tech used against them. "Shut her down NOW!" Lotor screamed at his soldiers, she could tell he was figuring out his plan was going up in flames.

"Sir, the only way is to get close to her and insert it physically!" Acxa hissed.

"Then do that! I refuse to let my weapon escape me like my Father's escape him!" He yelled.

"Somebody has daddy issues!" Pidge mocked, her petty banter slightly easing her nerves as she tried to focus. Lotor glared at her, the need in his eyes clear as day, giving her chills.

"Shoot her in the legs of you need to, she'll heal," Lotor ordered as he stood up straight, getting a weapon from one of his soldiers. It was now or never.

The image of her bayard formed in her mind, then physically formed in her hand, the grappling blade almost identical to her Bayards, only it was purple instead of green. She didn't like it, she liked Green better, but it would do.

She swung her blade at the robot soldiers, stabbing and slicing through them as they were too slow to move out of the way. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the butch Galra woman running at her, her arms above her head as she was about to slam them into her head. Pidge ducked, instinctively throwing her hands over her head and waiting for the impact, only the Galra women hit something over her and stumbled away. Looking up, she noticed a shield had formed around her before she was attacked. She grinned. "Finally, it's ass kicking time!" With that, she ran straight at Lotor and his crew of lady generals, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. The colourful woman swung a kick at her, which she ducked under and head butted her right in the jaw, causing her to stumble back as Pidge twisted and jumped away from Narti the lizard lady who whipped her tail at her. Her blade reformed and she swung at the lizard woman who dodged her attack and jumped back as Acxa shot at her, missing her by a hair. She swung her arm at an angle, sending a sharp blade of energy at the Blue Lady and distracting her as she hit her with her grappling blade while she attempted to dodge the first attack and sending her flying back. Turning back to Narti, she stumbled quickly away just before the woman touched her with her creepy claw hands, but tripped over her goddamn cat. A foot slammed into her chest and pinned her to the ground, looking up, she saw the smug look of Prince prissy pants. "You can't win little mouse," he purred. "Just give up!"

"This is our third date and you still know nothing about me," Pidge sarcastically whined, then arched her back and wrapped her legs around Lotor's that kept her pinned, then twisted her back and cracking his leg sideways. He screamed and stumbled away as she rolled backwards and quickly stood up. "Holts don't give up, I never have, and never will!" She growled. Then turned tail and ran out the door.

Feet stomped heavily behind her as her own bare feet slapped lightly against the cold metal floor as she tried to gain speed. Looking up, another idea formed in her head and she jumped, twisted 180 degrees in the air, and slashed at the ceiling in an 'X' shape, sending the energy blades right at a bunch of pipes and wires and slicing right through them. She twisted again before landing, landing in a crouch as the pipes and metal crashed behind her and blocked the hallway, then continued running. Angry voices faded behind her until the only sound she heard was her heavy breathing and the sound of her footsteps. The hallway continued on until she came to a three way split in directions, with signs! Her luck was slowly improving.

Left was 'Prisoner Possessions', the middle was 'Crew Cabins' and the right way was 'Emergency Exit'. She needed the emergency exit to get off this stupid ass ship, but then again... she wanted her shit back. That and if she took her stuff AND escaped, it would leave a pretty clear message that stated: FUCK YOU.

She decided she wanted to leave that extra 'fuck you' and get her shit back. So left she went, as luck would have it, it was a short hallway and the door was unlocked. Her Paladin gear was in a nifty little box, and she took a cape in another box because capes were fucking cool. That and she was cold and putting on her Paladin gear would take too long.

So wrapping herself in the cape she took and the box of her shit in hand, she ran back to the three split hallways and made her way to the emergency exit. Voices were heard in the hallway she ran from and quickened her pace, they got through their little detour. This hallway was longer and she was running out of breath, and energy.

Then she saw it, escape pods. A whole shitload of them. Taking to the first one, she had to hack her way through the access panel and toss her shit into the small space vehicle as the voices got louder and closer. She dived headfirst into the pod and closed and locked the door. A bunch of habitable planets popped up on the screens and a choice of the destination.

Someone slammed on the Escape pod door and she jumped and looked over to see Space Legolas viciously try to override the pod as the large Galra lady slammed on the door. She selected a random planet and heard a click and hiss as the ship began to pull away from the ship. Lotor screamed and yelled, his swears muffled by the layers of thick glass.

Pidge gave him a shit-eating grin, her tongue stuck out, tugging down her left lower eyelid, and flipped him off as she pulled away. With a spark and a blast, the escape pod took off, building up speed as she watched the large ship that held her prisoner slowly get smaller until the pod opened a small wormhole and flew through it, cutting off her view.

She never noticed how hard her heart was pounding until that moment, then she let out a breath she was holding and slouched as low as possible with a long, drawn out sigh. She won't be able to sleep easy for the next few years, not to mention the throbbing pain the pulsed from her back and slowly grew worse and worse as the adrenaline wore off. She felt the device and the skin around it, pulling her hand back and looking at the warm and sticky blood that covered her fingers. She probably shouldn't have moved as much as she did, she must not be fully healed from whatever they did. In some way, she felt extremely tired and couldn't react to everything she just went through, except the stabbing pain that had returned and actually felt worse than before. More like the knives were on fire and covered in molten salt, twisting every second. It took every bit of willpower to try and focus on making sense on what this thing actually did instead of just curling up and moaning in pain. She did have an idea of what the device was though based on her escape. She created a flying blade, her bayard weapon, and a shield. Every time, her veins seemed to glow purple, but she realized that the glow was in fact coming from her nerves, not her veins. The webbed glow didn't match the thicker veins in her arms. Therefore the device must be connected to her spine somehow, which sends what she assumed was quintessence, based on Allura's story, through her nerves and manifests into whatever she imagines. In short, her brain sends an image through the spine, which the device adds energy to form and then that energy travels through her nerves and forms at the end of them.

It was simple, yet complicated. What she didn't get was why they inserted her with Altaen blood, and where they GOT that blood. She guessed that in order to keep her from dying of blood loss while they installed this thing into her spine, they had to give her compatible blood. Was there anything more to adding such specific blood or was it just the only thing that was compatible to her O negative Type blood?

She didn't know, all she knew was she had a robot spine, weird-ass eyes and markings, and a cool cape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the reason for this fic, the 'what if Pidge got a rad Galra device?' Mixed with 'Pidge would look sick as an Altaen'.
> 
> Then the device idea went to: 'HOW MUCH ANGST CAN I MILK FROM THIS?' And 'Robot spine sounds awesome.' That and Pidge swearing. Lots of Pidge swearing.


	11. EXTRA: Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor is PISSED.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short thingy.

"Track that pod NOW!" Lotor screamed as we stormed down the halls, there were no words to describe how pissed off he was. The hag was right, he HATED it when the hag was right. He should have wiped that memory of hers clean when he had a chance, no, he had to see her broken. His stupid desire to force a Paladin of Voltron to work under him out of their own will RUINED him. 

He forcefully slammed his hand on the keypad and watched with impatience as the door slowly slid open. "Didn't you idiots hear me? Find. That. POD!" He hissed.

"We can't sir," the Galra replied, trying to inch away from him. "The pods are specially designed, we can't track them-"

"What do you mean, you can't track them? We are the Galra EMPIRE. We can find ANYTHING!" He yelled, causing the other Galra in the room to flinch. He has never lost his temper like this before, and that fact only pissed him off more.

"The pods are meant to be able to get away from danger without being tracked, even our tech is unable to track it so our enemies can't use it to track the pods either. If she used any other ship, we could but those... those are specially designed for the Emperor and his closest generals in emergencies. We can't risk them being tracked if they escape, especially if they are critically injured," the Galra tried to explain.

Lotor had to take a moment to breath, to push down his anger, his emotions. Everything that human, Pidge, had done made him want to break her even more and more. He wanted to see her broken, kneeling at his feet.

He dragged his fingers through his hair, then took a deep breath. "Get my ship ready, I'll go after her myself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I believed I was perfect and could outsmart anyone and then some kid does it why flipping me off as they do so, I'd be pissed too.


	12. Stranded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finally managed to escape Lotor's clutches. For now at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy. No end to her suffering is there?

Pidge focused on breathing, making sure not to take too deep of breaths or too short of breaths. Saying that the pain in her back was terribly horrendous was an understatement, the smallest movements causing her to yelp in pain. Her eyes ached from watering so much, it was impossible to tell if they still were or not. She felt exhausted, both from the stress of the escape, the unending pain in her back, and the lack of sleep from the unending pain in her back. She'd kill for some painkillers, she even debated knocking herself out just to try and get some rest. 

The pod shuttered and she opened her eyes to see she was entering a planet's atmosphere, right, she put in some random coordinates during her escape. She glanced down at the box holding her Paladin gear. There was no fucking way she was going to be able to get that on, not to mention the literal bloody hole in the leg of the outfit. If this planet didn't have proper pressure or gravity, she wasn't going to be able to leave the pod, not that she could physically move or anything anyway. She looked at the control console and whimpered, knowing if she wanted to check, she would have to sit up and move her arms a lot. That results in more flaring pain in the understated terribly horrendous pain.

The pod slowly shook to a stop, a screen popping up in front of her and showing the vitals of the planet. Oh good, she didn't have to move to do that! She quickly scanned the status of the planet, and sighed with relief when it showed perfect pressure, gravity, and oxygen levels. The sigh caused her to flinch in pain, and the flinch caused her to whimper in pain. It was just pure chain reactions of pain today. She looked around at the landscape around her, large hills rolling in the distance and yellowish grass covering those hills. A thin layer of what seemed like mist covered the land, the mist being a blueish colour.

She couldn't help but think of local aliens emerging from the mist with spears and the possibility of being taken prisoner again. She'd fight of course, but she didn't know how long she would last before collapsing from the sheer pain of movement. She just wanted to go back to the castle of lions, they had those cryopods that healed shit like this! Hunk or Shiro could carry her there gently, because they were gentle gentlemen, Lance would make bad jokes as he tried to cheer her up, Keith would do an edgy thing like lick his knife or something. Allura and her would have a nice talk about Altaen culture, and Coran would show her some other cool tech. She would work on Green, giving her an upgraded cloaking device and a cool ass secret tracker gun so they could shoot a tracker at an escaping Galra ship and track them easily! She could go back to her computer and find Matt, the location was there, she knew the galaxy he was in. She just needed to pinpoint the location in that galaxy. Then Lotor showed up and-

Flashes of memories skipped across her mind, blinding lights glaring in her eyes, the horrible sound of drilling into flesh and bone, the twisting and stabbing pain she felt now. That smile, the smug look of the Prince looking down at her, those horrible Druid masks, the dim lights and dark purple hue of the Galra hallways and cells.

Her breathing had become erratic, ringing filling her ears and her hands were clenching the sides of her chair like she was about to be ripped out of the pod. "Stop thinking Pidge, you aren't there anymore, you got away! You're safe now! As safe as a fucking defenceless and in pain alien is on an unknown planet... unless they track you. And find you defenceless and in pain on said planet- OH FUCK JUST STOP THINKING AND TALKING!" She screamed at herself. Great, she was going to die crazy. 

She looked outside the pod again, slowly becoming tempted to leave the pod and lay on the grass to stare at the sky. She use to do that all the time at home, when becoming stressed from school work, Matt would drag her outside and sit her in the grass. He would then lay down and she would follow his lead, it would be quite at first, then they would talk. Staring at the sky, pointing at clouds that looked like memes and talking about how cool it would be to be abducted by aliens and go on space adventures. Space adventures hurt more than she realized. She really needed some calm, she couldn't tell if her shaking was from pain or the horrible dump of memories she just experienced. Looking outside once again, she took a deep breath in, then grabbed her bayard in the box and shoved open the pod. Stumbling out of the pod in the most ungraceful way, she grunted and hissed in pain before collapsing in the grass face first and rolling onto her back, her bayard still in her hand. Groaning and slightly crying from the horrible pain, she noted that the grass-like plants she way lying on was incredibly soft and the breeze was incredibly perfect. It gently blew across her face and cooled her heated and sweaty face, the clouds in the sky, a nice white against blue-purple, moving lazily as the wind pushed it elsewhere. Even as her body burned like it was covered in hellfire, she felt herself calm down and her muscles relax. She felt like she was at home. Instinctively, she reached for Matt to steal his glasses and stopped when she felt empty air. Her calm faded, her throat tightening and she felt through the empty air. 

It hurt. It hurt so much. Not just the pain but the ache in her heart. Her eyes burned as memories of Matt fluttered against her mind. She slowly pulled her hands to her face, gross fat tears flooding over her face. She pulled her legs closer to herself as she trembled and silent sobs escaped her lips. Then she let go, she was alone on this planet anyway! She cried, she cried loudly and let the snot and spit dribble down her face. Hiccups rocked her body and the pain only made it worse, she felt like a small child. She wanted to go home. She wanted to see her friends again. She wanted to see mom and dad again. She wanted Matt. She needed him back. She needed to wrap her baby arms around him and cry into his shirt, to scream and yell about how everything hurt. To have him slowly and gently rub her back as he told her everything was going to be ok. To tell her she was safe and she didn't need to be afraid anymore. 

She was scared. She was scared and all she wanted was her big brother. Why did they have to take him away from her? Why did Earth try so hard to hide the truth from her? Why couldn't she find him? Why did this have to happen to them?

She tugged the cape that she still wore around her, using it as a blanket as she lay curled up on her side in the soft grass. 

She closed her eyes, still hiccuping and crying, pulling the cape closer around her. 

The biggest question flooding her mind. 

Will I ever find him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love laying in the grass on a calm day and watching the sky. It's so peaceful.


	13. Helpless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finds out she's not alone on the planet she landed on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huzzah! Another chapter! More Pidge!

She felt the pain first, everything still hurt. A little less, but still quite a bit. She opened her eyes slowly and looked up at the sky, feeling that something was off. She was greeted with swords right near her face.

"FUCK," she yelled. One of the masked newcomers holding the one sword slightly flinching from her outburst. 

"Get up," the other masked alien said, nudging his sword closer.

"Not going to happen shit biscuit," Pidge hissed, "I've been dragged through hell and hell's hell! I've been stabbed, shot, and mocked! I spent so much of my energy searching, trying to find anything! I'm always so close and then it's pulled away from me! Then that fucking space Legolas shows up and fucks with me, doing horrible shit and trying to fucking break me! And now, I have two fucking swords pointed at me as you wake me up in the worst possible way and demand the impossible from me!" Both the masked aliens took a step back from her outburst, probably confused by her reaction to their demands. She took the opportunity to reveal her bayard and smack the swords away from her as she stumbled backwards to her feet.

Immediately, she regretted it. The pain that had previously been tamed and reduced to a throb flared to life, causing her to shout out in pain and collapse backwards as her legs gave out. Landing on her back only made it worse, and she whimpered as it made contact with the ground.

When did she become such a mess?

"That was just kind of sad to watch," the one alien said.

"Fuck off," Pidge hissed through clenched teeth. 

She heard them walk over to her, but she didn't see any swords this time. "You don't seem like much of a threat, based on that attempt," she pinpointed this voice as the the person who was more twitchy to her movements.

"We can't be too sure," the other alien stated, this alien had a deeper voice and was harder to scare. Someone kicked her bayard out of her hand, she could only watch as it spun out of her range of sight. "Now that the weapon is out of her range, she is less of a threat. Yet we have to be careful, we've never encountered this species of alien before." Right, she forgot about her weird ass eyes and markings on her face, similar to an Altaen, which Allura and Coran and whoever was in the Galra Empire were the only Altaens still alive. So not many people have actually encountered Altaens for thousands of years if she remembered correctly. She could be wrong though, it was hard to think when her back felt like it was being melted by lava. 

Hands reached under her back and knees, she couldn't help but scream in pain as they brushed the metal device on her back, causing the alien trying to pick her up to pause. "Quiznack, this little alien really must be suffering," the shakier voice noted.

"From the rags it's wearing, I think that it may have been a captive of the Galra. Perhaps we misread the situation, it must've been afraid and based on the pain they seem to be suffering from... it must be afraid that we might do something to it," the deeper voice responded.

"I'm not an 'it'," she hissed at them, grunting in pain as the bigger masked alien lifted her off the ground. She didn't trust them, but she couldn't fight them. Everything still burned horribly and from their little conversation, she began to doubt they were going to be as bad as the Galra. She could be wrong though.

The bigger alien carrying her was gentle though, despite his cautious voice. He was careful not to move her too much and as much as she wanted to start swearing up a storm and tell them to fuck off, she appreciated his gentleness. "Alright then little alien, if you're not an it, then what are you?" The alien asked. She was starting to hate it when people called her 'little'. 

"I'm a-" she paused, unsure of how to answer at first. "I'm a she," she said between her sputters of pain. Better than 'it'. The alien nodded and began to walk away from the escape pod. "Where are you taking me?" She grunted. 

"None of your business!" The other voice pitched in.

"It is my business if you're taking me there," she snapped back. They walked in silence for a moment before the alien carrying her spoke.

"We are going to our headquarters," the alien stated.

"Theero!" The smaller alien yelped.

"She has a point, and there is no harm in telling her," Theero grunted.

"But she could be a spy!" They whispered, even though Pidge heard them perfectly.

"Spies do not collapse backwards and whimper and cry in pain at every little movement, they charm their way in. They fake a broken arm or a broken ship, and she never said anything about being stranded. As well as that ship looked more like a small one trip escape pod than a broken down ship. The facts do not lead to spy, more as an escaped captive," Theero blandly answered. Wow, she sounded really pathetic. Not to mention Theero radiated heat, slightly soothing the burning hot knife pain that stabbed her back, and he reminded her of Hunk. A more serious and less full of emotions Hunk, but still similar to soft and gentle Hunk. 

"So, are you people going to help me or am I going to end up a captive again, because I don't like the latter option too much," Pidge grunted, every step Theero took sent a spark of pain through her, but it couldn't be helped.

"It depends on if you are a SPY or not," the other alien accused. For a jumpy type, they sure got confident when the enemy was unable to fight back. 

"Well, if you guys hate the Galra Empire as much as I do, then we won't have any problems," Pidge sighed, watching the hills disappear in the mist. They walked in silence for a while, her sense of time was extremely out of whack so she couldn't tell how long 'a while' was anymore. She would guess maybe half an hour, but it could've been longer.

Theero broke the silence, "what happened to you?" He simply asked.

Pidge huffed and grunted in pain from the huff, "Pretty blunt about, huh? No beating around the bush with that one." They looked at her with confusion, and it took her a moment to realize they wouldn't understand Earth sayings. "It's a saying we have on my planet, it means that you get right to the point of what you are trying to ask from someone," she explain. They both nodded in understanding.

"You still didn't answer his question, and I'm personally curious of what lie you might come up with!" The smaller alien said. They reminded her of a weasel, so she decided to nickname him weasel until she found out his actual name.

"I don't really want to talk about it," she sighed, trying to direct her thoughts elsewhere. If she thought too much about it, she might begin having flashes of memories again and horrible sense of dread and fear.

"What a suspicious answer!" Weasel cried.

"No, it's the least suspicious. Most captives are mentally scarred by the things the Galra put them through, and therefore wish to avoid anything relating to them. This is especially true for those who most recently escape them," Theero explained. Pidge liked this alien, he seemed to always be on her side. "How about, what kind of alien are you? I've never seen your species before," Theero asked instead. Pidge hesitated, what does she say? She's a human with infused blood of an endangered space elf race? At least, that's what she thinks she is? The ringing in her ears started to slowly return and she had to think of something else, something not related to the empire. Her breathing had sped up when the ringing started so she focused on that instead. Slow and calm breathes in and breaths out. "I'm guessing it's related to your time with the Galra. No need to answer, just natural curiosity," Theero told her, his walking speed slightly slowing down. 

"You know, you are a very nice alien. At first you were a bit scary, but you are quite respectful," Pidge noted as she leaned her head back slowly and watched the sky. If he didn't have a mask on, she swore she would have seen him smile. 

"We're here," he said instead of answering her. Looking over, she saw a large metal door covered in overgrown yellow grass and vines, the mist and plants hid it so well, she never would have found it if she didn't know what to look for. He looked down at Weasel and they both watched as he scuttled forward and placed his hand on a hidden keypad. The door slid open and they all stepped inside, in interior dark and hard to see in. Except something glowed in the darkness and she couldn't pinpoint where it came from but it seemed to always stick near her. Theero must've seen her struggle in the dark to find the source of light. "Your markings on your cheeks are glowing," he simply said and she stopped looking around. She didn't know these things glowed, so much for her dream of becoming a ninja. 

They walked in the dark for a while longer before getting to a door at the end of the hallway and being greeted with some blinding lights flooding from the other room. "What was the point of that hallway?" Pidge hissed as she blinked rapidly from the bright light.

"To cut down any intruders, the darkness allows our sharpshooters to hide up high on ledges and prevent any enemies from getting an advantage on us," Theero simply stated.

"Stop telling this spy all our secrets!" Weasel screamed.

"I do not believe she is a spy," Theero simply said. 

"I trust Theero's judge of character, Koolac," a new voice said. Pidge looked over and saw another masked figure, a taller and lankier alien compared to the two other aliens. They wore a similar mask to Theero and Koolac, loose fabric with goggles sticking out and a tube running from the mask to something on their back underneath the fabric they wore. They held a long staff, probably good for hitting people with at a distance.

"The way she speaks reminds me of you," Theero said. Pidge paused, the way she speaks? What did that mean? "Weird ways of saying things, what do you call them? Expressions?" 

"Really? I guess Earth isn't the only planet out there that speaks weird," the masked newcomer said.

Earth. Another human?

She noticed the way he stood, the small tilt of his head, her throat tightened. It couldn't be, no way it was him.

Then he took off the mask and she gasped, unable to stop staring at him. It was him, she knew from all those months staring at a screen and looking at the pixelated pictures and videos she had. He was leaner but he still held himself the same way. "Matt," she whimpered.

Matt looked at her suddenly, confused. "How do you know my name?" He asked. 

She shoved herself away from Theero, stumbling to her feet and ignoring the pain that sparked and stabbed at her. She let the tears flow freely down her face, "Matt... it's me Katie..." she cried. "I cut my hair... and got some alien blood... but I found you!" Matts eyes widened in realization as he stared at her, as if seeing the difference in his mind. 

"Katie?" He whispered. Pidge suddenly felt afraid, afraid he would reject the idea, refuse to believe her as she should be on Earth. But he dropped his staff and ran towards her, engulfing her in a tight hug as he lifted her off the ground. She grunted in pain as he squeezed her a bit too hard, but wrapped her own arms around him, tightly as her fingers hooked into his clothes. She didn't want to let him go, not ever again. "You're here!" He half laughed and half cried. He then held her at arm's length and took a good look at her. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed by her tears. "You've looked better," he laughed as she laughed/cried with him. "Where is the rest of your team?" He asked.

"What?" Pidge suddenly asked.

"Voltron! Shiro told me everything about it! How you and three other guys were flying Voltron!" He exclaimed. "None of them tried anything, right? No one gets to date my sister without my approval!"

"Matt, we found her in an escape pod from a Galra ship. There were no signs of Lions that Shiro spoke of," Theero explained.

"What? Katie, why did you come from a Galra escape pod?" Matt suddenly asked, his face contracting with worry. 

"Long story, what do you mean 'Shiro told you everything'?" Pidge exclaimed. "Shiro is back with Voltron! We found him in a Galra fighter drone, half dead! How is Shiro here when he's with Voltron?"

They both stared at each other before Pidge couldn't hold herself up anymore and collapsed forward into Matt. "Katie? Katie! What's going on? What happened?" He yelled, worried as he held her up. 

"It hurts," she whimpered, "Too much movement, I made it worse from getting up so quickly." She felt her body shuddering and sweating from the pain. 

"Made what worse?!" Matt yelped.

"Galra... Prince Lotor, looks like a Space Elf," she managed to grunt, her vision spotting out and her ears ringing loudly.

"We need to get her to the medical ward!" Matt yelled. "Hang in there Katie, it's going to be alright! You're safe now!" His voice echoed through her mind, and she believed him. She was finally safe with her big brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She found him!!! Holt siblings together for the win!


	14. Worries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finally found Matt, now it's Matt's turn to help his sister out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! 
> 
> Pidge has finally escaped the flames of Lotor and Matt is here! Yay!

Shiro looked at the space maps that hovered in front of him, trying to figure out how to get back to his team. He'd helped the resistance for the past few weeks, hoping to get some clues about Voltron as he did so. It was ironic how quickly he flipped from trying to find the resistance to trying to find Voltron. Thinking back to the battle against Zarkon only made him shake his head in disbelief. Somehow, he teleported right after the battle out of his Lion and right in the middle of another battle halfway across the universe. He figured out quickly which side was the Galra empire and which side was the opposing side, so he helped the aliens fighting the empire finish their battle. Then he found Matt, or Matt found him. Matt had tackled him in a hug, he was wearing a mask at the time so Shiro was extremely confused as to why this random alien was hugging him. Then he took it off and they had a crazy reunion. It turned out that Matt was saved by a bunch of freedom fighters from the Galra prisons, then trained to fight while also helping by coming up with plans to battle against the Galra. While he was doing all this, he managed to find some time to try and track down Shiro and his Dad, Sam. But he never had much luck.

In turn, Shiro told him about his escape, his crazy robot arm, and Voltron, including the fact that Katie was on the team and spending her time relentlessly to find him and their dad. At first, Matt got mad, asking Shiro why he let his little sister go to space with a bunch of alien strangers and it took some time to tell him that he didn't know it was her at first because she was disguised as a boy to try and find them on Earth. It was a very crazy week basically. Though Matt sighed and muttered something along the lines of, “typical Katie.”

He looked up as he heard the doors slide open, seeing Matt enter the room. "So, did Theero and Koolac come back from investigating the atmosphere breach?" He asked. Matt looked at him and quickly strode over to him.

"They found Katie," he stated, sitting in the chair beside Shiro and running his fingers through his hair. Shiro paused for a second before looking down at Matt. 

"You mean Voltron is here?" He asked, not sure if he could believe it. But Matt shook his head, looking at the floor.

"No, she came in a Galra escape pod. They did something to her Shiro," he whispered.

"What?" Shiro asked, giving Matt his full attention. That couldn't be right, she was still with Voltron, wasn't she? 

"She's in really bad shape, Theero said he found her laying in the grass and tried to attack them when she woke up, then collapsed as soon as she did so. She said Prince Lotor did it to her before she completely passed out in front of us. Her eyes are different, and there are weird markings on her face, like little boomerangs under her eyes that glow green," he explained.

"That sounds a lot like an Altaens features... but your family is fully human, what did they do?" Shiro asked, but Matt shook his head.

"That's not the worse part," he said, then looked up at Shiro, his eyes clouded with worry. "There's something on her back, some sort of Galra device. Our medics are looking at it now, to try and figure out what it might be or if it's connected to anything important. She's in a lot of pain Shiro, and I think it has to do with that thing on her back." Shiro couldn't seem to wrap his head around this, how could this happen? "We are hoping to ask more questions when she wakes up, but another thing is worrying me. Before she fainted, she told us that you were with Voltron, that they found you on a drone fighter ship, half dead. But how is that true if you're here?" Matt asked.

Shiro felt his heart stop, it couldn't be, they couldn't have. It was impossible. "They must've done it, I heard the Druids talk about the failures but I never thought they succeeded," he whispered.

"Succeeded doing what?" Matt asked.

"Cloning me," Shiro sighed. This got really weird really fast. Even Matt looked at him weird. "Let's focus on Pidge first, do you have any clue as to what is on her back? What could Theero tell you?"

Matt looked down at the floor again, "he told me that she cried out in pain a lot, whimpering with every slight movement and sweating a lot, we bet that only adrenaline and personal spite kept her going for so long. It looks horrible, I don't know what we are going to do."

"I should've been there, I let this happen because I wasn't there," Shiro self consciously said. Matt immediately jumped to his feet, giving him a cold stare of determination.

"This is NOT your fault!" He yelled. "This is the Galra's fault! We didn't do this to her, they did!"

"But I could've prevented it!" Shiro hissed, looking away. Matts hands forced his face to look at him, making eye contact.

"We all could've done something Shiro! But it happened now, and we can't turn back time. Now, we just focus on what we can do now, that's all we can do," Matt slowly slid away from Shiro and sighed. "I'm scared, and you're scared. We don't know what happened, what they did. Only Katie has the answers, and even then, I'm afraid they didn't just hurt her physically, but mentally. Physical wounds are easy, it's the mental ones that are harder to heal..."

Shiro pulled Matt into a hug, feeling him tremble in his arms, his body giving off violent shudders every so often. "Thank you Matt," he whispered, holding him close. He felt Matt nod against his chest, then watched him as he slowly pulled away and wiped away the tears in his eyes.

"I left Katie with Vex and Ralph, if anyone can figure out how to help her, it would be them," Matt sighed. 

"Of course," Shiro nodded, looking over as the door opened and another alien walked in. "Vex! We were just talking about you!" 

"Oh good, you're both in here," Vex said as she walked into the room. "Ralph and I got x-rays from your sister Matt, as well as blood samples. We have come to a few conclusions, good and bad," she said as looked at her notes.

"Good and bad?" Matt asked.

"I'll start with the good, which is that she will be fine. Her vital signs are normal, no organs had been damaged and her blood pressure and blood-sugar levels are normal. She just needs to rest in order to heal," she stated. "The middle... odd news, is based on her blood samples."

"What's weird about it?" Matt asked.

"There's a mixture of human blood and the unknown alien blood in her veins, but that alien blood is... well it's turning the human blood into that type of alien blood," she said.

"What?" Both Matt and Shiro asked at the same time.

"It's not bad, it's mainly just weird. It may explain the changes you noticed, the change of blood giving her the markings and odd eyes. Even more, this may only be the affects of when human blood interacts with this alien blood, the effects won't be the same for other species. It's not hurting her, she just has a bit of a different appearance now," Vex explained. 

"Then what's the bad news?" Matt asked, his voice slightly shaking.

"It's that thing on her back. There is no possible way we can remove it," she said, looking at Matt.

"What do you mean? What did the Galra do?" Matt asked.

Vex shook her head and pulled up an x-ray, showing both Shiro and Matt. "Those plates have fine drills, three on ten of the plates, two on one of them, and finally one on the top bar of metal. Every drill has been infused with a vertebrae, connecting to the nerves in it and allowing a flow of unknown energy that emits from this device. The fact that they managed to drill into her spine without paralyzingly her is... incomprehensible. It takes extreme skill to do such a thing, a twitch or a small miscalculation could destroy those nerves instantly. In other words, that metal spine is a part of her nerves now, and if we were to try and take it out, we would kill her. All we can do now is let her bones heal and wait for the swelling to tone down," she sighed, putting away the x-ray.

Matt sat back down, "nothing? She's stuck with that thing on her back forever?"

Vex walked over and placed a hand on Matts shoulder, "I'm sorry, but it's the best option we have."

"Can I see her?" Shiro asked. He needed to see his teammate, his friend. 

Vex looked over at him and smiled, "of course! We added some herbs to her bruising and bandaged her up, she's resting in an empty room. I'll lead you to her, you want to come too Matt?" 

Matt nodded, standing up and following Vex and Shiro out of the room. They followed her down the hallways to the sleeping area, then into Pidge's room. She was lying asleep in a small bed, the sheets pulled up to her shoulders. Shiro looked at the markings and confirmed his suspicions, they were almost identical to Coran's and Allura's markings. "She looks better," Matt sighed behind him. "Before she was sweating and grunting in pain, now she looks like she's sleeping peacefully."

"We gave her lots of this planet's special herbs which numbs any pain she's feeling and makes her quite sleepy. She won't wake up for awhile, but she will sleep very well, some very much deserved rest," Vex explained. 

"Can you tell us when she wakes up?" Shiro asked as he watched Matt sit next to her bed.

"Of course, we will be sure to closely monitor her health as well," Vex smiled.

"Thank you Vex," Shiro smiled back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell that I ship Shatt? Because I do. Very much.


	15. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt waits for Katie to wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a nice chapter. I like this chapter.
> 
> Also, if anybody ever has the urge to draw anything related to this, TELL ME. I want to see.

"Hey Matt," a voice called through Matts dreams. "Maaaaatttttt. Matty Matt! Guess what Matt?" The voice echoed through his head. He murmured a garbled 'what', in response to the voice. There was a small pause. "Gays in space," the voice whispered. 

"Katie, we all know Gays thrive in space," Matt muttered unconsciously, then jolted awake, looking over at his sister who sat up in the bed and grinned at him. "You're awake! You're awake and the best way to tell me that was to mention Gays in Space?" Matt exclaimed.

"Duh, you and Shiro are the best Gays in space," she stated, grinning as his face turned a bright red.

"You wake up, after escaping the Galra and collapsing in my arms, and that is the best thing you can come up with?" Matt asked, then burst out laughing. Katie quickly joined him in laughing.

"I couldn't think of any good Lord of the Rings quotes! I don't watch a marathon of it every weekend like you do!" She giggled. 

Matt pulled his sister in for a hug, still laughing hard enough to bring tears to his eyes. "You are one crazy little sister. You go into space to find both Dad and me, you join a bunch of super space heroes, then you single-handedly escape a Galra ship, no less Prince Lotor's ship!" He laughs.

"Dude, Lotor looks a lot like an evil space Legolas, it's weird as hell," she said seriously before laughing again.

"No kidding?" Matt giggled, trying to imagine it.

"No kidding!" Katie yelped. "I hate him because he's like, extremely attractive and it's not fair! Why are the villains attractive? If I become a villain, will I become attractive too?" 

"No way, you'll just end up like Darth Vader," Matt teased. 

"You meanie!" Katie laughed as she gently shoved him away.

"I'm glad you're ok," Matt sighed.

"Can't kill me that easily, I'm like a cockroach," she said almost proudly. "Now, I need details, what did your alien buddies find?"

Matt stopped laughing and looked at her, a look of seriousness on her face. Real seriousness. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb, I know you know what I mean! What did that dick-weed prince of hair products do to me?" She asked.

"Language Katie!" Matt yelped.

"Don't pull a Captain America on me! I'm in a weird alien equivalent of a hospital bed, and I'm pretty sure you had to make sure I was ok because that's what panicking brothers do! Not to mention you don't specify in medical sciences, so that concludes that one of your buddies helped me out!" Katie lectured. "The pain in my back has been toned down by a THOUSAND percent. They must've found something out when toning down that pain."

"You are too smart for your own good," Matt sighed. Katie grinned at him. "Alright then lil' sis, here's the rundown," Matt explained as he told her everything Vex had previously told him. Katie didn't react much, she mainly just watched him as he talked. When he finished, she leaned back and sighed.

"So I have Altaen blood, the thing on my back is never coming off unless I want to die or become a vegetable, but everything else is fine," she summarized.

"That's right," Matt confirmed, nodding his head as he said so. 

"Well shit," Katie blandly stated.

"Katie! That's worse than dick-weed!" Matt yelped. "Where did you learn to talk like this?"

"Pfft, I'm 15, I learn from the internet. I usually just don't swear around you. Or Shiro. Let's just say that I have been swearing a LOT, at myself and other people," she slyly said. "Where is Space Dad? Didn't you say he was with you and I freaked out a bit?"

"How do you know about that nickname?" Matt quickly asked, then felt the regret grow inside of him when his sister looked stunned, then devious.

"Matt... do you have a Daddy kink?" She slyly asked, moving closer to him.

"OF COURSE NOT!" Matt yelled.

Katie leaned against her pillow, her hands held up in surrender, " alright, it's none of my business what happens in the bedroom with you and Shiro."

Matt felt his face heat up, and he had to look away to avoid showing her how flustered he had become. "Shiro is out with some resistance members, they are going to steal some Galra information," he said, not looking at Katie until his face cooled off.

"Alright cool, so, um... which Shiro is the real Shiro?" She asked. Matt looked over to her. 

"What do you mean?"

"Well... we have a Shiro back at Voltron. I personally think that he's a fake," Katie stated.

"Why not this Shiro?" Matt asked, not even sure why he was diving down this rabbit hole.

"Because when we saved that Shiro, his hair had grown down to the middle of his back! Hair doesn't grow that fast! Not that long in two weeks!" Katie yelped.

"Point taken," Matt nodded.

"That reminds me, I have no idea how long it's been since I was separated, a week maybe?" She trailed off.

Matt shook his head, "that's impossible, you've been out for six days, and I doubt the Galra could do this to you within less of a day."

"Six... days? Earth days or alien days?" She asked, her voice becoming quiet.

"Pretty close to earth days, like an hour more," Matt said. 

"Matt, Matt we need to get to Voltron," she suddenly exclaimed, her voice now sounding panicky.

"What? Why?" He yelped, surprised by her outburst.

"You need five lions to make Voltron, and I'm one of those five! Unless they got the fake Shiro to pilot Black and Allura to pilot Green, or maybe even Coran. But what if NO ONE is piloting Green? They can't form Voltron, they will be at a disadvantage! How could I let this happen?!" She cried.

"Katie, you need to calm down. You trust your friends, right?" Matt asked, holding her still. She nodded, still looking worried. "They will find a way, like I found a way, like Shiro found a way, and like you found a way. They will be fine." Katie nodded, calming herself down.

"Alright... Matt, I have one more question," she said, letting out a held breath.

"What is that?" He asked.

She turned her head to show the white clump of hair on the back of her head. "Is my trauma patch as cool as Shiro's?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Matt has a DADDY KINK. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  
> I can't believe you let Katie find out, she is never going to let it go.


	16. Stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge decided that she prefers to be help than sitting in a bed all day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for your support, it really does lift my spirits when I see a new comment or kudos. Keep on enjoying :)!

Pidge looked around the room, slowly lifting the sheets of her bed and sliding out of it. Gently, she placed her bare feet on the floor and looked at the door. She may have only just woken up, but she was already sick of being stuck in a bed. She wanted to look around, explore a little bit, found out more about this Resistance. Matt was found, the first half of her mission was completed, now she needed to get back to Voltron and see if they found her Dad, and make sure everyone was fine.

She also wanted to see what else this Robot Spine was capable of without any spectators. If she was stuck with it, might as well see how to not kill anyone. Maybe add adjustments. 

Wow, this was a weird way of coping with this... situation. She looked around the room again, then tucked the pillow under the sheet, and using the wall as support, scuttled over to the door. Matt still didn't have his glasses, which meant he was a blind as a mole, he wouldn't be able to tell she was off doing some adventuring. 

And testing her glowing energy powers she guess she had now. Opening the door to the room, she looked both ways in the hallways, then confirmed that they were clear and made a break for it. Sneaking down the hallways as well as she could, she noted the nice sleek grey walls and pale green lighting. Better than the black walls with purple lighting on Galra ships- she shook her head as memories bubbled up. Now was not the time to have an episode, now was the worse time. She continued sneaking down the hallways, distracting her mind with finding something interesting. Like other aliens! The resistance Matt was saved by must have hundreds of different species in their ranks! Oh and the technology they must have based on the different species!

She bumped into someone by accident, distracted with her thoughts. "I'm sorry-!" She apologized, looking up at the alien. She was tall, slender and colourful. Almost like the lady on Lotor's team, but with blues, greens and purples and two long hair-ish things tangling behind her instead of one. She wore what looked like a lab coat and a sweater, she looked very professional. 

"You! You should not be out of bed!" She cried as she scooped Pidge up with little to no effort. Pidge let out a surprised squeak as she did so, unsure as to how to approach this situation. "You are so small, you could get stepped on! We can't have that! And you can barely stand! Why did you leave your bed?" She complained. Pidge didn't know how to answer, who was this lady? "You need to heal! If you want to walk around, you need to talk to me! Not just wander off!"

"Wha- who are you?" Pidge managed to stutter as she struggled against her.

"I am your Doctor! And you need to stay OFF your feet! It strains your muscles and you need to heal! I can get you a chair with wheels if you are so determined to wander off! You are as bad as Matt!" She huffed as she entered to room and plopped her back on her bed.

"Well, I don't want to sit here and do nothing!" Pidge complained. "And what do you mean, 'I'm as bad as Matt'?"

"Your Earth brother cannot see two feet in front of him! We do not have materials to create something to help his eyesight, so instead, he carries that staff everywhere with him! So stubborn! Must be an Earth trait! His other friend refuses to sleep sometimes as well! Are you all so determined to make life so difficult for yourselves?" She huffed and puffed as she stalked around the room, putting things in place and then checking over Pidge. Tapping her arms gently and looking in her eyes, ears, and mouth.

"I don't want to sit around like a useless potato! I want to help!" Pidge whined.

"Fine! Fine! Just sit tight! I'll get something to help you get around easier! Yeesh! Earthlings!" She said as she rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

Pidge watched her as she went, still confused about the interaction that just happened. She said that she was Pidge's Doctor, did that mean that she's the one that helped heal her? It could be possible. The alien doctor walked back in, pushing a fancy wheelchair. Fancy as in- it looked alienish but still looked like a wheelchair.

She then walked over, picked Pidge up, and plopped her in the chair. "No standing, I'll push you where you want to go," she simply said.

"No wait, I can do that myself-!" Pidge began to argue, but was cut off.

"The muscles in your arms need to heal too! No movement! I'll push you around, and that is final!" She ordered. Pidge shut up, feeling the need to listen to this strict alien doctor. "Now, where do you wish to go?"

"I wanted to find Matt or Shiro, maybe help with finding Voltron," she explained.

"Matt is going over strategy plans, but Shiro should be free, he has not seen you yet?" She asked as she pushed her out the door.

"Not when I was awake, Matt said he went on a mission yesterday," she recalled.

"Oh yes, there was possible information regarding Voltron on that ship. He came back this morning, he may have found something," the Doctor said.

Pidge then realized something, "you said you were my Doctor, but I don't even know your name!"

"I am Vexiusmasyla, but everyone here calls me Vex for simplicity. You are an interesting patient, I have never seen the Galra do such an in depth experimentation before," she said. Pidge looked up at her and saw her expression soften, "you do look a lot like Matt, only smaller with slightly different features. I do truly fear the fact that you could easily be stepped on." She shook her head, her expression turning grim. "The mere idea that the Galra would do such a horrible thing to someone as young as you. They have no soul," she sighed. 

"Well, I'm pretty hard to kill," Pidge joked. "I could've been put through worse!" She couldn't think of any examples, she really didn't know if she COULD have been through worse. Vex cracked a small smile anyways, letting out a small chuckle.

"Oh you humans, always trying to find a positive solution to the worse of troubles," she sighed. Then Vex opened a room and she was wheeled into it, greeted by the sight of Maps littering the walls and tables. Shiro stood in the middle, staring intensely at the map below him.

"Shiro, have you slept recently?" Vex demanded.

"I'm close, once I connect it all, I'll sleep," he muttered, not looking up.

Vex sighed, "I doubt it. Anyhow, I brought someone to help you with your investigation."

Shiro looked up, then spotted Pidge who awkwardly waved to him from her wheelchair. Then the softest Space Dad smile spread across his face as he walked over and dropped to his knees in front of her and hugged her. Pidge had to tap his arm, wheezing out a 'Too tight! My ribs!' to get him to loosen his hold and pull away.

"It's good to see you awake," he smiled, then slowly looked away. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I wasn't there, I should've been there," he began, but Pidge held up a hand, stopping him.

"Shiro, it's not your fault. You were here, helping Matt. It couldn't be helped," she shrugged. "The only reason why Lotor managed to get his dainty little evil space elf hands on me was because I let my guard down and made stupid mistakes. Like letting his general shoot me in the leg."

"His general did WHAT?!" Shiro yelped. 

"That explains that scar in your leg," Vex simply stated.

"Didn't hurt as much as the spine thingy," Pidge simply said. "You guys got my stuff from the ship, right?"

Vex nodded, "that box of gear, right? Similar to Shiros."

"Pidge, are you sure you are fine?" Shiro asked.

"Of course! I feel fine! Just a little achey!" She responded.

"No, I mean... mentally, I know what they can do Pidge," he said seriously.

Pidge looked at the ground, shifting uncomfortably. "I... I don't really know..." she whispered. "I... I can't think of it or I get... I get these flashes..." Pidge fiddled her fingers, unable to explain it. "I... I thought they were going to kill me Shiro, it isn't a good mindset. Then, before I managed to escape, they talked about erasing my memories..." she paused. "Do you understand the fear of forgetting everyone, and everything? The idea of hurting someone, because you don't remember them? It's terrifying. The whole experience is something I wish never happened," she began to choke up. "I was scared Shiro, I was hurting and scared. I would try to pretend that I wasn't, but it isn't something that just goes away. It hurt being afraid... I think I'm scarred Shiro... I doubt it will fully heal..." she slowly said. She held in her tears, not wanting to show how much she was truly hurt.

Shiro gently placed his hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. "It doesn't go away, the only thing we can do is live with it. It's ok," he smiled, "you're not alone." Pidge couldn't help but smile back as they hugged again. "Now, how is the rest of the team?" Shiro asked as he stood up. 

"Well, Keith is driving the Black Lion and Lance is driving the Red Lion, and Allura is driving the Blue Lion. We went to an alternate reality where you were Swedish or something and Altaens were crazy galaxy overtakers. Nobody is dead yet, and we found a wild-man you," She finished, happy about the change of subject. "So, do you know what is going on about that?"

Shiro sighed and crossed his arms, "I heard snippets during my time with them, something about clone failures. I didn't assume anything since they only spoke of failures but, it seems there was a success. Why aren't you more freaked out about it? I would've guessed you would accuse me of being the fake."

"Well, that makes some sense. I know you are the real one because one, you have the right haircut. Two, the other Shiro had long hair when we found him, which was weird since he wasn't gone for THAT long. And three, it makes more sense that the Black Lion teleported you to Matt rather than back into the clutches of the Galra," Pidge listed off. "Now, Matt told me you're searching for Voltron. Do you need an extra hand?"

Shiro grinned, "It wouldn't hurt to have a genius hacker help me out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sPACE DAD.


	17. The Pent up Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team continues their search for Pidge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven’t had a team point of view for a while. Whoops.
> 
> Today we get to see a side of Hunk we never thought possible
> 
> Thanks again to EVERYONE! I hope you enjoy!

Lance pushed hard against his controls, urging Red to speed up in order to catch the odd ship. Anger burned in his soul, an anger he didn't know was possible for him. That ship belonged to Prince Lotor, the Galra Prince who STOLE Pidge four weeks ago. The only message they got from Pidge was more than three weeks ago, after that, nothing. He couldn't help but think of the blood they found on the planet where they lost her.

He needed to stop this ship, they needed their smallest member back. If only he wasn't so useless! "C'mon! We need to go faster!" He urged Red, feeling a heatwave as a response run through him. Red surged forward suddenly with a burst of speed, slamming into the ship as Red opened its jaw and bit down on the ship, keeping it from moving. "NOW!" Lance screamed as he activated the mouth laser, landing a point blank hit on the ship and sending it spiralling onto a nearby planet, the crash visible from space. "Guys, I got him! He crashed, and now I'm going to go after him," Lance reported over the speakers.

"Lance no! Wait for us to catch up-" Keith's voice cut in, but Lance quickly tuned him out and headed towards the crash site. Landing Red hard against the ground, he noted that the ship didn't even look that damaged. His hit was point blank! How did this ship manage to avoid so much damage Red should've inflicted? Unless it put up a last minute shield.

He jumped out of Reds cockpit, his bayard taking the form of a rifle. He kept his aim on the person who exited the crashed ship, his hands held up as he walked formally towards him. Lance matched his steps, not taking his eye off the enemy. The person had their helmet on, so Lance couldn't tell who he was aiming at, but he did know that this person was the same person who took Pidge. The alien stopped, and so did Lance.

"I must admit, I never expected you to catch up to me," the person purred. This was Lotor, Lance could tell by the sound of his voice.

"Where is Pidge?" Lance immediately yelled. After saving Sam, Hunk tried to track Matt through Pidge's Laptop, but the Laptop was locked and nobody could figure out how to access it. Instead of trying to start from scratch, Hunk remembered that this ship was made out of the same stuff as Voltron. Hunk then took that data they used last time to track the comet and upgraded it, extending its range by connecting it to the castle. Then they found him. Everyone decided on the plan that Lance would catch up to Lotor and slow him down, then wait for the rest of the team. But Lance already broke from the plan, his rage for the Galra Prince too great to ignore.

"I'm sorry Paladin, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," Lotor dramatically sighed. Lance tensed up.

"You know exactly what I mean! What the hell did you do to Pidge!" Lance shrieked, his grip on his rifle tightening.

"Oh! You mean the Green Paladin? I thought you would've guessed by now. She's dead," Lotor calmly stated. 

Lance's heart stopped, he didn't want to believe it, but he couldn't help but notice the evidence leading to that conclusion. Tears stung his eyes, "you BASTARD!" He screamed, then shot at him, aiming for his chest. But his blast was shot out of its path by another blast, redirecting Lance’s attention to another newcomer. One of his generals.

"You made a mistake Paladin, and that mistake was following me alone. Get ready to die like you friend," he purred. As his General shot at Lance, he realized too late that he couldn't move. 

Then Keith leapt in front of him, cutting the blast in two and saving Lance. "I told you to WAIT," he hissed. "I was going to tell you that it could be a TRAP! And I thought I was the impulsive one!" Lance couldn't help the relief that flooded through him.

Hunk and Allura quickly backed him up, weapons in hand and ready for battle. Three more of Lotor's own generals also appeared as the rest of his team joined him. 

"Did he tell you where Pidge is yet?" Hunk asked, his blaster aimed at the woman with the long lizard tail.

"Oh, you didn't hear me? I was just telling this... Blue Paladin that your Green Paladin friend is dead. She refused to give us any information, so we discarded her," he simply restated. Everyone around Lance reacted differently, Allura gasped, Keith yelled and Hunk stood frozen. Then, Hunk took a step forward, his helmet shadowing the features of his face. 

"Hunk, what are you-?" Keith gasped before he broke into a run, right towards Lotor. His generals reacted, leaping towards him to protect their Prince, but Hunks bayard changed, shifting into a long two-handed sword. He swung the with ease at them, smacking them to the side while letting go and sending the weapon flying with them to the ground. He grabbed the Prince by the armour’s equivalent of a collar and yanked him into the air, his snarl loud and clear even from the distance.

"Where is she? What did you do to Pidge?" He growled. Lance was stunned, he had never seen Hunk react like this, it was horrifying. The rest of the team could only watch as they were too shocked to react. Hunk violently shook Lotor again when he didn't answer, screaming, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO PIDGE!" The Prince finally reacted, reaching and grabbing the arms that held him dangling in the air.

"You don't believe me?-" the Prince started to say charmingly before stopping looking at Hunks expression. It must've been terrifying, due to the fact that he began to struggle against Hunks grip. Lotor had done the impossible, he unleashed the wrath of Hunk. 

"One more time. Where. Is. Pidge?" Hunk hissed.

Then, they all paused as they heard a crackle in their intercoms, a voice distantly calling, distorted by the static. "What's going on?" Allura asked, looking towards the other Paladins. 

"I don't know," whispered Lance, his gaze still trained on Hunk, seeing that he froze as well.

The static slowly began to quiet down, the voice getting clearer and clearer until it was as if they were standing right beside them. "Hello? Guys? Jesus Shiro, you suck at adjusting radios," Pidge's voice echoed through their helmets. Hunk dropped Lotor, who collapsed to the ground and scrambled away from him. "To the left. No MY left! Do you even know what left is?!"

"PIDGE!" They all cried in union. 

"What?" Pidge asked. "Oh wait, cool! It works!" Her voice was clear as day, almost like she never left. "Wow, so you guys managed to figure out my password?"

"Pidge where are you?" Keith asked.

"I'll take that as a no, pure coincidence, lucky me. Um so, turns out. I found the resistance. Cool right? Matt is here. Say hi Matt," Pidge said, a faint 'hello' being heard in the background. "The fact that you guys are getting this means that you must be in the solar system! Ok, I'll get some directions and- wait. There's an extra ship getting this. Is the castle there?" She asked.

They all snapped back to reality as they saw Lotor board his ship and take off, disappearing in an instant. "No, that was Lotor, we just ran into him- he probably heard your transmission," Keith yelled through his helmet.

"SHIT," Pidge yelled.

"LANGUAGE!" Someone else yelled on Pidge's end.

"Was that... Shiro?" Lance asked. "How did Shiro get there?"

"Long story- painful story- it's a story," Pidge said. "Look, I'm going to cut off the signal so prince of ruin everything doesn't track it. Brb!" With that, she clicked out and team Voltron was left standing in total silence. 

"Am I going crazy, or did everyone else hear Pidge?" Lance asked, convinced that he was just crazy. 

Hunk picked up his Bayard and walked back over to the team. He seemed to be slightly shaking as he hung his head like a shamed puppy. "I heard her too, sorry about... what happened."

"Dude, you freaked out Lotor, that was awesome," Lance said breathlessly. "That and- PIDGE IS ALIVE! She must have an epic story!"

"Didn't she say she found her brother?" Keith asked.

"That's right!" Lance yelped. "I finally get to meet the famous Matt!"

Pidge's voice cut in again, "alright, so, I bet Lotor is trying to track where I am for evil Galra purposes. So now I got a buddy of my brother to continue that signal but somewhere else. So I BELIEVE we are in the clear. Now to find me, you are in the Delta system right now, or you should be. It's not a very original name, I know. Back to the point! Go to the yellow-green planet with purple seas. You should see a flashing red light. It flashes every minute so watch carefully! Land there. I'll meet you there! Pidge- OUT!" With that, she cut out once again.

"We actually found her," Lance whispered, half to himself. "Or, she found us. Wow, no fair."

"C'mon!" Hunk yelled out, running towards his Lion. "We finally found Pidge!" Lance grinned, happy to see Hunk back to normal. Keith let out a sigh and smiled at Lance.

"She really knows how to one-up us," he chuckled before following Hunks lead and dashing towards his lion.

Lance looked to Allura, who seemed to be out of breath, "you alright princess?" He asked.

Allura could only nod before finding her words, "I thought I lost another family member, I was afraid that Lotor was telling the truth."

"I get what you mean princess," Lance smiled as they both headed back to their lions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge has to one up everyone. She gets kidnaped? She’s gonna save herself because she don’t need no one.


	18. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dream team is reunited!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SEASON 4 is HERE!
> 
> I haven’t had the chance yet to bing watch it. Dang school work.
> 
> Enjoy this chapter guys!

Hunk landed Yellow with ease, right where Pidge told them to land. He slowly left his Lion and looked around, then saw her. She was sitting in a wheelchair, vigorously waving at him with a huge smile plastered on her face. "Pidge..." he whispered at first, his feet dragging him stumbling forward. Then, he was running forward, sobbing loudly as he collided into her and knocked her out of her chair and crushing her in a bear hug. "PIDGE! PIDGE YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU'RE ALIVE AND NOT DEAD! I'M SO HAPPY! I'M SO HAPPY I CAN'T STOP CRYING! YOU'RE ALIVE!" 

"Hunk! Hunk!" Pidge gasped. "Crushing! Crushing me!" 

Hunk let go and looked at her, tears streaming down his face. "We were so worried! We saw the blood, I was crying, Lance was crying, Allura was crying! Then we got your message! Then you went silent for WEEKS! We couldn't get on your laptop to find Matt, so we tracked down Lotor. And he told us you were dead, everything went red and I lost it-! Then you contacted us! You contacted us and we finally found you! Oh god, we were broken Pidge! We were so broken!" An alien suddenly stepped between them.

"Off! Off!" She yelped. "She isn't fully healed! Off!" The alien then pried Hunk off of Pidge and placed her back into her wheelchair, watching Hunk carefully as he kept himself from pulling her into another hug, still afraid that this wasn't real.

She coughed a bit, but continued to smile, "it's alright! I'll live!"

With that being said, the rest of Voltron joined them, even Coran and Shiro. "Pidge!" Lance screamed and ran towards her, only to be stopped by the alien protecting Pidge.

"No more roughness! Gentle hugs only!" She ordered before letting Lance through. Lance still managed to give her a tight squeeze, but she only laughed and returned the hug.

"I don't believe this is real! It can't be real!" He laughed as he pulled away and Allura and Coran both hugged her at the same time. "And who is your gorgeous friend?"

"Can you not flirt for ten seconds!" Pidge laughed. 

"I can't help it!" Lance cried.

"I'm glad you're ok," Keith said, as he walked over to her. 

"Are you crying?" Pidge asked. Everyone's attention immediately turned to Keith, and he quickly hide his face.

"No, it's just dust," he quickly said.

"Sure it is, edgy McKnife licker!" Pidge laughed. Keith only shook his head in confusion with a small chuckle. It felt like she never left.

"Katie..." Sam whispered as he stood frozen, staring at her from a distance. Pidge immediately looked at him.

"...Dad?" Her voice cracked. Sam broke into a run as Pidge lifted herself from the wheelchair, causing the alien behind her to squawk in protest. But she couldn't stop them from running to each other and colliding in a huge hug and collapsing to their knees. Both were crying, clinging to each other as if fearing being torn apart again. Hunk could hear them whispering between their sobs. "I found you, I found you!" Pidge cried into her Dad.

"It's ok, it's going to be ok," Sam soothed as he gently rubbed her back. Hunk felt his heart swell, Pidge finally found her family. He couldn't help but break into tears as well and join their hug, most likely ruining the moment. He didn't care though, they were finally back together. Lance joined them soon after Hunk, then Allura, Coran, Keith, and finally Shiro. A big pile of hugs on the grounds of an alien planet.

"Pidge? What's this on your face?" Allura asked once they pulled apart. Hunk looked over and noticed what she was asking about, the markings on her cheeks. Then he noticed her eyes, they were different. "Pidge, what happened?"

Pidge smiled, this time weakly. "It's a long, painful story," she sighed. "For now, let's just say that it's permanent, and now I have Altaen blood."

"You're kidding," Lance gasped.

"I wouldn't kid about this," she sighed.

"Those are authentic Altaen marks," Coran stated. "Same shape, shade, and texture!"

"I believe we are all just glad that Pidge is safe," Shiro smiled.

Hunk then noticed Pidge look at Shiro weird, then at her feet. "Is something wrong Pidge?" Hunk asked.

She looked at him then she looked behind him. "Well... Um... it's just... I didn't just find Matt," she trailed off. 

"You found Matt?" Sam gasped. Pidge nodded, looking slightly distant.

"It's better if I explain everything back at the base, the story is long and ... I have a bit of a hard time telling it," she sighed. She then tried to stand up, but the alien standing near her chair squawked and rushed over. She hissed at Pidge to stay off her feet as she lifted her up and put her back in the wheelchair.

"Why is this lady so defensive about you?" Hunk asked.

"Oh! This is Vex, Vex, this is Voltron! And my dad," she introduced, brushing the grass off her sleeves. "Vex is my defensive Doctor, she is making sure I heal correctly, which means she fuses a lot." Vex huffed in response, but let a smile escape. 

"Wait, heal? Heal from what?" Keith asked, concern lining his voice.

"That's... part of the story," she sighed. 

"Why don't we go back to the castle? We have the cryopods!" Allura suggested.

"No cryopods! It is not safe, could react badly," Vex hissed.

"Matt is waiting back at the base, it's best if everyone meets the Resistance first. Mainly because they are still skeptical about you guys, and I don't want them shooting you out of the sky," Pidge explained.

"I see no harm in it," Shiro said.

"We get to meet MATT! The famous Matt Holt!" Lance cheered.

Vex pushed Pidge around and led the way, a look of slight annoyance on Pidge's face. She didn't like being pushed around from the looks of it, but she always did have a bit of a 'I can do everything on my own' complex.

They made it to a hidden area, the mist thick around them as they were led into a dark corridor. At the end of it, they were greeted by a light, and a person. Everyone froze. Hunk couldn't believe his eyes, it wasn't possible.

Shiro was standing there in the light, dressed in the Black Paladin armour he disappeared in. But there was a Shiro standing beside him! "What's going on?" Their Shiro asked.

"You are a clone," the Black Armoured Shiro stated. "It may be hard to believe, but it's true."

"How do we know YOU aren't the clone?" Keith accused, stepping in front of their Shiro. "Pidge, what the hell is going on?" Everyone looked to Pidge, who shook her head. 

"THIS Shiro, is our Shiro. He has the Black Paladin armour, his timeline and answer to his disappearance makes more sense. The Black Lion didn't teleport him back to the Galra. He teleported him here, to Matt," Pidge tried to explain. Hunk understood, it did make more sense. But what about this Shiro?

He couldn't stop himself from stepping away from clone Shiro, Lance following suit. "I'm..." Keith whimpered, then sighed. "I'm sorry..." he said as he stepped away from him. The look of utter betrayal on Clone Shiro's face broke Hunks heart, then aliens with rifles closed in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He may be a clone but you still feel bad.


	19. Release

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stories are shared, tears are shed, and everyone is together again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So these next few chapters I made BEFORE season 4, so ya... some things are off. But meh, we shall keep going!

After some yelling and confusion, as well as mini interrogation, they decided that Clone Shiro didn't know what they hell was going on either. They had yet to decide a name for him, but for now, they agreed that he was A Shiro and that it would be a dick move to assume that he was evil because he was a clone.

Pidge fiddled with her fingers, looking at Shiro who sat next to Clone Shiro. They both looked awkwardly at each other. This entire situation felt awkward, nobody knew how to react. Pidge personally couldn't stop thinking of that Danny Phantom episode with the clones, was Clone Shiro going to melt into a pile of green goo at any moment? She couldn't stop imagining it. Were the Galra going to try and clone HER? That would be really weird, almost as weird as it felt at the moment.

"Pidge! Earth to Pidge!" She jolted upright and looked over at Lance who gave her a concerned smile. "Well, we are all here, other than your brother. Mind telling us what happened while... you know..." he trailed off.

"Right, right..." she muttered. "Well. After being separated, I crash-landed on a planet. I went outside of Green to assess the damage and found Green just... horribly damaged. In my distress, The space version of princess Azula showed up, I mean Lotor. His goons chased me around a bit before one of them shot me. I remember blacking out, then waking up in a cell." She took in a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. "They underestimated me, so I jumped Lotor, tore out some of his hair, smashed his head into the lady who shot me's head and ran. I found a room full of computers and sent a message, after hitting the lizard lady with her cat. Which I believe you guys got." Everyone nodded to confirm and she continued. "I got knocked out again, met a space iguana, made another escape attempt, then got dragged to..." she swallowed the lump in her throat. "To a small room. Where... where they..." she brought a hand to her mouth and took a shaky breath, gasping through hiccups. "Horrible. I remember it hurt, but I don't remember what they specifically did. But it never stopped... I don't know how long I was there. Then they stopped..." she shivered, breathing heavily as she tried to push down her sobs. "I woke up again, in a different place. A room. It all hurt, everything just pure... agony... the Prince showed up and called it a 'beautiful upgrade'!" She had to stop, hugging her arms around her, trying to stop the shaking. Hunk gentle sat beside her and pulled her close, letting her use him as a pillow as she let out her cries of hate and fear, clinging to his shirt as he patted her head. She slowly pulled away and smiled at him, but didn't let go of his shirt. She couldn't look at her team as she continued, "I looked like this, and they attached this... this thing on my... on my back..." she took some shuddering breaths. "I got mad, and I used the device to escape. Then... " she couldn't help but smile. "Then Matt found me..." She let the room fall silent, not sure how everyone was reacting. She felt so vulnerable, and she hated it, she hated how she couldn't suck it up and say what she needed to say.

Then Lance stood up, and took in a deep breath. "I say we kick Lotor's ass!"

"LANCE!" Both Shiro's yelped at the same time. 

"What?!" Lance whined, "we were all thinking it!" 

"I was thinking it," Hunk volunteered. 

"I like the idea," Keith agreed.

"Nobody hurts Number 5 and gets away with it!" Coran stated as he stood up. 

"I'll personally tear out his hair, strand by strand!" Allura cried. Within seconds, everyone in the room was standing and yelling out ways to get revenge on Lotor. Keith's being more graphic, ranged to Hunks suggestion, also quite graphic. Lots of suggestions about destroying his hair.

Pidge felt herself grin, pride swelling inside of her for her space family. She then started to yell her own revenge ideas, the room a chaotic yet organized mess of yelling ways to get back at Lotor. 

"Down with Space Legolas!" Lance yelled, thrusting his fist into the air.

"DOWN WITH SPACE LEGOLAS!" Everyone else cried, following suit by thrusting their fists in the air.

"What did I walk into?" Matt sighed as he walked into the room.

"A cult who specifies in making Space Legolas's life miserable!" Pidge chirped.

"I'm guessing you told them your tragic backstory," he chuckled as he sat on the other side of Shiro.

"It's more tragic than Spider-Man's, so tragic, that I started a cult. I doubt Spider-Man has a cult," she grinned.

"Well, seeing as we got your origin story out of the way, time to figure out what to do about Clone Shiro. The resistance is still sketchy about him and a lot of them want to lock him up and some crazy ones want to dissect him. I told them no," he explained.

"Can you stop calling me clone Shiro?" Clone Shiro asked.

"What should we call you then? The Japanese word for clone?" Lance suggested.

"No, that's worse," Clone Shiro sighed.

"What about Sven?" Keith asked.

"That's alternate universe Swedish Shiros name. It's taken!" Lance argued.

"How about you all just call me by my first name, Takashi," Clone Shiro said.

Everyone nodded and muttered their agreements, agreeing that it may be the best name they got for now.

"Now, I hate to break some bad news, but the resistance leaders want to have everyone separately interrogated. I trust Katie's judgement, but they don't as much. Luckily, they do trust me and have agreed not to treat you as prisoners, but they still want to make sure nobody here is a mole," Matt explained.

"So we answer their questions," Takashi summed up. 

"Yep!" Matt grinned. "Shiro and I will overlook it to make sure they don't do something stupid."

"Seems reasonable," Allura nodded.

"I can tell them about my days as a Galactic Girandu Fighter!" Coran chirped in.

"I have no idea what that is, but I doubt any questions would be related to ... that," Matt said, looking at Coran weird. "The leaders will be here shortly to take you in, meanwhile, Katie, Dad, and I will go catch up!"

"Wait, why does Pidge's dad get out of interrogation?" Lance complained.

"Because he's old," Matt teased.

"You haven't changed," Pidge's dad chuckled.

"You got me! It's because we have files based on his time as a prisoner from your castle, thanks to your alien princess friend here. He's only worked in mines for the past year and some," Matt explained. "Now if you'll excuse us Holt family!" With that, he wheeled Pidge out of the room with her Dad.

They walked in silence for awhile, unsure of what to say. Then her dad started crying, which was just so strange to see. "Dad?" Pidge asked.

"They are just so horrible," he whimpered. "What they did to you, to Shiro, to everyone! I just wish it never happened, that we never left and you, Matt and Shiro never got hurt! And now those other kids have been dragged into this mess, I'm afraid of what could happen to them... even more, I fear that they won't return home to their families. Oh Katie, Matt... why did this have to happen to us?"

Pidge looked back at the ground, "It is terrible, and I have also found myself asking that a lot... but then I also remember all the good we have done. That if Lance never found the Blue Lion and dragged us along for the ride, we never would have found Allura and Coran. If you were never taken, I never would have snuck into Garrisons, and we wouldn't have ended up on that roof. Voltron would've still been sealed away, and Zarkon would still continue his domination. Eventually, he would've ended up at Earth, and we wouldn't have anything to use against him. All of this happened, and it's good that it happened. Bad parts, yeah but in the end, I think it’s worth it..." Pidge trailed off.

"Your mother would be proud of both of you," her dad chuckled. "Her two babies, fighting an evil space empire." They all stopped as they created a Holt hug sandwich, "I'm so glad that you're both alive."

"Me too Dad," Pidge sighed. She didn't want to move, this is what she had been working for. Every sacrifice she made was worth it, and she would sacrifice so much more to keep it this way. 

Matt pulled away first, "I need to meet Shiro for the questioning. You two keep bonding!" With that, he headed reluctantly in the other direction and disappeared around the corner.

"He's dating Shiro, right?" Her Dad asked as he watched him walk away. 

Pidge started laughing, "you noticed this now?" 

"I've always noticed, I just wanted to confirm with you. Also, why do your friends call you 'Pidge'? Does this have to do with sneaking into Garrisons?" He asked.

"Pretty much. I made a mistake of getting caught so I had to create an alias to get back in and get any information possible," she grinned.

"That's what your friends told me," he sighed. "Let's find somewhere for me to sit down while you tell me everything about your adventure," he smiled as they entered an empty room.

They both failed to notice the black cat with odd designs lurking in the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How would you get back at Lotor? Haircut? Pranks? Stranding him on a desert planet and coming back just to mock him? I’d give him a bad haircut.


	20. Downhill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is slowly falling back into place, and Pidge feels almost relaxed once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 4 Huh? Who here cried during episode 2? Cause I did. I wailed like a baby. It was just... perfect. So so perfect.

"Alright, this stick will help you walk around. After letting everything heal, we need to build up your muscles again," Vex explained as Pidge stood up.

"Sweet, I have a cool stick like Matt now!" Pidge joked.

"Matts stick is because he can't see well, it allows him to hit enemies at a distance," Vex said as she packed up her medical gear.

"You're joking, that's why he had a stick?!" Pidge yelped.

"Yes, do you see anyone else here armed with a staff?" Vex asked. Pidge fell silent, thinking about it. "Exactly."

"WAIT A MOMENT!" Pidge screamed, causing Vex to jump in surprise. "His glasses frames are in Green! And his lenses are in my room! I can't believe I forgot!" She hurriedly shuffled out of the room.

"Don't strain yourself! You can take your time!" Vex cried out after her. "Just like her brother," she sighed quietly.

She shuffled down to hall, looking for anyone from Voltron. "Hunk!" She yelled when she spotted him. He stopped and looked over, then smiled when he saw it was her.

"Hey! You're standing!" He congratulated.

"Yes, yes, walking rules! I need to get Matt's glasses! I totally forgot about them! He's basically been blind this whole time!" Pidge hurriedly explained.

"Wait, those glasses were Matt's? Doesn't looking through other people's glasses make your eyesight worse and give horrible headaches?" Hunk asked.

"I popped out the lenses, they're in the case under my bed in the castle! I think the frames are still in Green, wait... GREEN!" She yelled again, this time causing Hunk to jump in surprise. "Last time I saw Green, she was scorched! She needs repairs! Why have I become so forgetful?" 

"Whoa! Slow down! It's fine! Green is fine! Coran and I looked over the damages and it's mostly just a mark that we had to scrub off! It just looked really bad!" Hunk yelped. "The only damages it caused was knocking out a few gears and snapping some wires, but we easily fixed those!"

Pidge felt herself relax with relief, "ok, good! But I still need those glasses for Matt!"

"Let's go together then! Just so you don't get kidnapped on the way there," Hunk joked.

"Haha, don't joke about that," Pidge said.

"Right, it was a traumatizing event, I shouldn't have joked about that," Hunk apologized. "Let's go then before awkward silence falls upon us."

"Yes, let's go!" Pidge exclaimed.

"I'm coming too," Theero suddenly said from behind them, causing them both to shriek in union and whip around. There stood the alien that carried Pidge back to the base, only this time his mask was off. He had rough looking skin, black as a void. Two pointed purple teeth on either side of his mouth stuck out of his extreme underbite, and three eyes looked down at her, two on the left side of his face and one on the right. All of his eyes were a milky, pale blue with no pupils. She couldn't find a nose on his face, but his ears were similar to a wolfs, only permanently posed back. To say the least, he was incredible.

"Theero? This is what you look like?" Pidge asked. He nodded in response, then looked at Hunk, who looked short beside Theero.

"You a friend of Matt's egg-sibling?" He asked.

"Uh- Um- Egg-sibling?" Hunk fumbled.

"One who has same care-takers," he explained.

"Oh. OH! You mean sister! Y-yes! I am friends with Matt's egg-sibling!" Hunk squeaked. 

"I am Theero, I will go with you and Katie-Pidge to make sure you are safe, and determine that your ship is not a threat," he hummed.

"You can call me Pidge Theero, Matt and Dad only call me Katie, Pidge is now my space name," Pidge said as she patted his arm. "Ok boys, lets go get Matt's glasses!" She cheered as she hobbled past them.

"Um-!" Hunk gulped as he looked at Theero, "c-coming!" Then he followed after Pidge as Theero turned and lumbered behind them as well.

They left the base after Theero gave the 'O.K', then headed towards the Yellow Lion. "So Theero, what have you been doing lately?" Pidge asked, trying to start up a conversation and ease the awkwardness around them.

"Patrols, strategy meetings, attacking Galra ships," Theero grunted.

"Sounds interesting," Pidge encouraged, trying to drag out the conversation. Which didn't work, since it immediately died out after her last comment. She really wanted to catch up with Hunk, but Hunk was way too nervous around Theero to actually say anything. Theero was imitating, she would give him that, but he did save her which caused her to trust him much more quicker than if she just met him.

"Everyone stop," he ordered, causing Hunk and Pidge to both freeze. Then he pulled out a rifle, she didn't know he could shoot a rifle, he had a sword last time. "Someone is following us," he stated quietly. Within a blink of an eye, he swung around at shot at the long grass. Pidge felt her blood turn to ice when she saw the flash of colours leap out of it, taking a step closer to Hunk as her blood roared in her ears. 

"Shit..." she whispered.

"What? What is going on?" Hunk asked, whipping his head around in concern. 

Why the hell were they here?! She assumed that Lotor and his little gang would've chocked up her escape as a lost cause and move on! Unless he was here for a different reason, her mind racing through different ideas of why he was here. Maybe it was to get another lab rat, with that thought, she felt herself tense up with anger. Determination quickly followed as she felt a tingle in her arm and a violet coloured cluster of energy formed at her fist, in the form of her bayard. If these bastards thought that they could take and torture her friends, or even try to lay a finger on her brother and his band of rebellious rebels, then she was about to show them that they could shove their dumb ideals up their ass. There was also the strong need to punch these dickheads in the face for petty revenge, another great reason to stick it to them.

"Pidge? Why is your bayard purple?..." Hunk asked as he noticed her defensive stance. 

"It's related to my Robot Spine, I'll tell you more about it after we kick Lotor's ass," Pidge quickly explained.

"Lotor?! Lotor is here?!" Hunk yelped as he drew his own bayard and activated it into his signature blaster.

"I recognize his goons, it's hard to forget their faces after the whole kidnapping situation," Pidge said as she went back to back to back with Hunk and Theero, forming a small circle.

"So how many of them are here?" Hunk asked, looking around a bit more confidently.

"No clue, I only saw the one Theero shot at," Pidge replied.

"Four," Theero simply said. "There are four. One in grass, second in trees, third also in trees and the last is slowly approaching from grass. I hear their breathing."

"Well, you are quite resourceful, now aren't you?" A smooth silky voice purred as the purple goon himself emerged from the tall grass, slowly clapping his hands. She wanted to tear him apart, her rage towards him and fear of him both colliding at full force. He messed her up, fucked with her head then fucked with her BODY. She hated the fear she felt when thinking about him and what he did, she hated his entire being in general. 

A hand landed on her shoulder and she looked up at Hunk, seeing him nod as she calmed her breathing and focused on not doing something stupid. Lotor stopped when he saw Hunk, something flashed in his eyes and it took Pidge a moment to realize it was FEAR. 

He was afraid of Hunk? When did that happen? Nobody fears Hunk, he's too soft and lovable to be feared. 

She looked at Hunk to see his reaction, and what she saw surprised her. He was glaring daggers at Lotor, hatred dancing in his eyes like she had never seen before. She suddenly understood Lotor's fear. 

He quickly regained his posture and acted as though nothing had previously occurred. "I see you found your Paladin before I did. Real shame, she's not done yet," he chuckled.

Hunk took a sudden step forwards, causing Lotor to flinch, but Pidge's hand shot out in front of him without a second thought, causing him to stop before he did something stupid. "He's baiting us, he likes to play mind games," Pidge reminded him. "I'll keep you from doing stupids as long as you keep me from doing stupids, deal?"

Hunk nodded in return, "Deal!"

Lotor frowned at their hushed conversations, as well as their lack of reaction to his insults. "I was hoping you would've tried to pull an attack by now," Lotor pouted.

"You always are three steps ahead, and create the illusion of being a step behind," Theero suddenly called over to him. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "We studied your ways, from reports to gossip, it's all the same. You have two ways. 'Overconfidence', showing off little of your skills, then striking the enemy before they realize your full power. Then the 'Wounded Beast' act, pretending you are unprepared, baiting your prey then striking as they blindly lash out. Your tricks won't work on me boy," Theero rumbled. 

"Whoa, get rekt," Pidge breathed.

Lotor didn't respond, he seemed to baffled to say anything. Theero left him speechless!

Pidge didn't expect Hunk to shove her and Theero aside suddenly, just as a lone shot echoed in the air. Someone grunted and they all fell to the ground in a mess of people. Pidge struggled to see the result of the sudden reaction, then saw crimson blood. 

Her first thought was 'Did I get shot?' Then it was 'why can't I feel it?' When tracking the source of the blood, time all around her suddenly slowed down. 

Hunk. The blood was Hunks. 

It was coming from his chest.

No.

No no no.

FUCK!

She was over him as he lay on the ground, his breath shallow and quick as he held the wound. Sweat beaded on his forehead and she struggled to keep the blood inside of him. "Hunk! Hunk talk to me! You're going to be ok! It's going to be ok!" She hissed through clenched teeth. She could hear more shooting and shouting, but it sounded distant.

"He... he did a thing... with... with his hand..." Hunk gasped. "I remembered... movies... they do that to signal... something... I... I had to get you guys down..." 

"Hunk! Stay with me!" Pidge screeched as she saw his eyes flutter closed. She pressed harder on the wound, trying to put as much pressure as possible on it. "STAY WITH ME DAMNIT!" She wailed. "You can't die yet! I finally got my family back together and I'll be damned if you get left behind! JUST HEAL YOU FUCKING HOLE!" Hunk didn't move, she squeezed his hand as her body shook with sorrow. Her tears mixed with his blood that pooled around him.

Then everything turned red, all logical thoughts escaped her mind as rage took over. 

How dare they.

HOW. DARE. THEY.

She could take torture, she could take insults, she could take ANYTHING they threw at her. But they killed Hunk. They SHOT one of her closest friends, someone she considered family.

She was going to kill them ALL.

Starting with the one who shot Hunk.

Two wide blades formed over her hands as she ran for the trees, knowing Acxa's location based on the angle of the shot. She rolled to the side as another shot rang out and leapt up into the trees, quickly gaining height and spotting her as she stared at Pidge in shock. Pidge hurled the blade at Acxa, slicing her cheek as she dodged to the side. 

Screaming in anger, Pidge lunged forward and sliced at her again, a new blade forming at her fist from when she previously threw the last one. Acxa struggled to dodge Pidge as she frantically tried jumping away, only to have the enraged Paladin gain even more ground as she swung left and right. Then she finally struck, landing an upper hook and sending the sniper tumbling to the ground. 

She quickly leapt to the ground and found her next target, the one who ordered the shot. Prince Fuck-Face himself. He saw her striding towards him, her wide blades turning to long blades and the mother of all death glares glinting in her eyes.

He gave her a smug grin and gestured at her to attack him. Within seconds, she was sparing with him, screeching as she hacked at him. Her brutality forced him backwards as they fought, even as he managed to block each attack he couldn't drive her away from him. With a shriek, she brought down both swords down into him, clashing into his blade as they grew still in a silent battle of strength as their blades struggled against each other. With a flick of her wrist, Pidge spun around the Prince and stuck at his back, but he was fast. He managed to spin around and block the hit, but caused both him and Pidge to stumble backwards in the opposite directions. 

Pidge hissed through her panting, then raised her blade to resume their battle when she felt something shift below her. Freezing on the spot, she slowly looked down to see she was stand on the edge of a cliff. A cliff that was crumbling and shifting under her feet.

Something snapped and she looked up in panic, her legs refusing to move as her mind screamed at them to do SOMETHING.

"PIDGE!" Hunks voice screamed. 

Her head snapped to the side faster than thought possible, was she dreaming? 

Yet there he was, running towards her with an arm stretched out to reach her.

She slowly reached back, then everything under her collapsed. 

She reached for Hunks hand as her body dropped, but only managed to grab empty air before plunging into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a... CLIFFHANGER!


	21. Miracles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miracles are one of the best things to gain, especially in the worst of times

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOO BOY SORRY FOR THE DELAY. 
> 
> SCHOOL.
> 
> FINALS COMING UP.
> 
> You know the drill.
> 
> WHOS READY FOR A FRESH BATCH OF LOTOR INSULTS?

Thoughts hurled themselves at Pidge's brain, plans with dead ends and ways to somehow get out of the situation alive bursting into flames. Only three ideas stood, the first was gain the ability to fly. A very low chance of actually happening, which led to try and grab onto the cliff with a sword or something. She couldn't see shit in the fog and the wind slapping her face didn't help at all. Last idea was to just accept death, accept the irony and die a fated death.

All her ideas sucked. She was going to die, like a bug against pavement. Splat! A quick death.

She was never going to get to kick Lotor's ass to its fullest extent, or figure out how Hunk was still alive. She won't get to see Matt and Shiros wedding! Or the day Keith finally realizes that Lance is his boyfriend! 

Why did her mind jump to those conclusions?

She decided to chock it up as last minute craziness. Her stomach flipped and she felt the ground begin to get dangerously close. Instinctively, she curled up and covered her face, her last thought being that of the idea of flying and how she would love not to die today. 

Her body lurched to a stop and she cringed, tucking herself smaller. Was it done? Did she hit the ground?

She slowly peeked out from behind her hand, and swore she must be dead at this point. The rocky ground was right there, inches from her face. Yet there was no body, no pain, nothing indicating she hit the ground. 

She looked up at the sky and felt herself jolt with shock when she saw the luminous violet wings that had miraculously sprouted from her back, flapping silently to keep her afloat. Immediately, she knew that her weird Robot Spine enabled this, somehow her last thoughts had manifested into wings that saved her from becoming a smudge on the bottom of the canyon. 

Strained giggles escaped her, she nearly died and survived by miraculously sprouting wings. She was alive and she was FLYING. What some people would give to gain something like the power of flight without the need of huge, bulky machines like airplanes or jet packs.

Then she dropped on her face as her wings disappeared with a flash. She couldn't suppress her laughs and giggles that shook her body as she lay on the rocks. 

She was still alive, and now she knew about the near limitless power she now held. Even as she rejected the idea of the plates on her back, she couldn't help but think of ideas of all the uses it could be used for. Any weapon for any situation formed with a single thought, shields formed on instinct! And now this! The ability to fly! There was no end to the possibilities that this energy held, this quintessence. 

Yet her mind flashed to the story Allura told, of the way Zarkon and his witch used to be good people before being exposed and going... crazy. 

She could end up like them if she wasn't careful, or any hero in a story when presented with too much power and they get greedy and cocky.

She needed to tell her friends and family about this, if anyone would keep her from doing a stupid, it would be them! Hopefully. 

Scrambling to her feet, she pictured the wings, then felt a grin crawl across her face as she slowly lifted off of the ground.

It was ass-whooping time.

With a jolt, she was hurling through the air only this time, she was going up. Wind whipped itself against her face in a more exhilarating manner as she spun out of the fog, leaving a trail behind her as she stopped in the air. With a flick of her wrist, she flung a newly formed blade grappling hook at Lotor, who stared at her in surprise.

"Pidge!" Hunk cried as he struggled against Narti and the Colourful Alien lady. Pidge smirked as she landed back on solid ground, and whipped back her blade, causing Lotor to jump out of the way to avoid being cut. 

"Round two Purple Man!" Pidge sneered. Lotor shook away his dismay and returned the smirk.

"You turned out better than I would have ever anticipated!" He marvelled.

This immediately pissed Pidge off, she was going to cut out his voice box when she was done with him. "You talk too much," she said with a grin, hiding her annoyance. With that being said, she thrust her blade at him, jumping back when he would swing at her and clashing weapons every so often. 

She got too caught up in the battle that when Lotor pulled away she was caught off guard. He used this opportunity to strike, slashing her shoulder as she screamed in pain and stumbled back. Clutching the wound and looking up, she saw the dick-biscuit running away and tried to stand up to chase after him, only to be shoved down again. She felt a small pinch in her neck before looking up and seeing Acxa run after her Prince.

She rubbed the back of her neck and only felt the metal bar of her Robot Spine, what the hell was that all about? And why were they running away?

Hunk helped her to her feet as she realized that back-up had arrived and was probably reason why Lotor decided to retreat. "You're not dead!" Hunk shouted as he shook her. "How are you not dead- wait no- dumb question. How is it you can FLY?" 

"I-I don't know!" Pidge managed to reply through his shaking. "Something to do with this Robot Spine and what I assume is quintessence! Wait! How are YOU alive?! You got shot in the chest and were bleeding out!"

Hunk looked at the hole in his suit and Pidge followed his gaze. She expected a hole, but saw a light hole-shaped scar where it should've been. "It healed, after you touched it," he said, almost in disbelief.

"Holy shit. I can heal people now too? No wonder Zarkon is obsessed with this stuff," Pidge gasped as she marveled her own hands. The idea of becoming like zarkon made her stomachs lurch slightly, this newfound power still slightly frightening. 

"I think it's more than that, I'm not too good with biological science, but I think that the fact that that thing is fused to your spine is the reason you can do all of that stuff," Hunk theorized.

Pidge leapt on Hunk which caused him to yelp in surprise, unable to wrap her arms around him but still trying as she give him a hug. “I’m just... I’m just so happy you’re alive!” She choked, the memory of all the blood stained in her memories, then realizing she probably still had his blood on her hands. “I thought they killed you, I thought I would have to sit through another funeral, but one I knew that you were dead...!” She swallowed her gasps, her fingers digging into his suit. “Don’t do that ever again!” She scolded as she pulled away, a look of determined anger plastering her face. “Or! Or I’ll come to the afterlife and kill you myself!”

“I promise! I promise!” Hunk laughed as she backed away and huffed, crossing her arms and hiding her face as tears threatened to resurface..

“That was largest amount of miracles I have ever seen in one day,” Theero suddenly cut in, cause Hunk and Pidge to shriek and turn towards him. He smiled at them both, “I am glad no one lost their lives today, luck has seemed to favour both of you.” He looked at the resistant members who regrouped and had gathered around them. “Would you still like to fetch your egg-siblings seeing device?” He asked.

Pidge nodded enthusiastically, suddenly remembering the entire reason they were even out there, “we’ve come this far, and I feel lighter than air!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you. Thank you everyone! I love the feedback and I love how much you love this story! 
> 
> I THINK I fixed the comments but I’m not too sure... I’m still kinda new to AO3.
> 
> THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE AND SEE YOU NEXT CHAPTER! (Hopefully later this month!)


	22. Pieces finally Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge explores her newfound powers with the help of Matt and Hunk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE. Hope y’all have a great holiday and enjoy this new chapter!

“My glasses!” Matt exclaimed, holding them up to the light before gently placing them on his face with his eyes closed. When he opened them again, he let out a tiny gasp. “I can SEE,” he whispered excitedly. 

“That’s right Matty! Now you can see!” Pidge giddily grinned.

“It’s been so long, and now I can actually see! You did good lil’ sis!” Matt praised.

“I did good for retrieving your glasses. Not for flying across the galaxy in anime lions, digging through ominous clues about your whereabouts, and kicking evil purple cat ass. Glasses. That’s it,” Pidge sarcastically groaned.

Matt lightly punched her shoulder, “You don’t need to be so dramatic!”

“I’m allowed to be as dramatic as I want, anime lions, remember?” Pidge argued with a smug grin.

“I could never stop you, could I?” Matt asked with a chuckle.

“Drama is my source of power, of course you couldn’t stop me!” Pidge laughed evilly.

“By the way, why is everyone staring at us?” Matt asked, looking up.

“I fell off a cliff early and brought Hunk back from the dead, so we were going to figure out what is going on in this back thing,” Pidge simply answered.

“You whAT AND WHAT?!” Matt exclaimed.

“Weird, right?” Pidge asked.

“Also she didn’t bring me back, she stopped me from dying from a fatal wound,” Hunk explained.

“It sounds cooler if I say I brought you back, it makes me look like a necromancer!” Pidge pouted.

“So that all happened... because of your back thingy?” Matt tried to sum up.

“Yep, all because of my back thingy. I was going to have Hunk help me hack it,” she explained.

“Hack- is that even safe?!” Matt yelped. 

“Doubt it, but my entire life has been unsafe at this point. What’s the harm in playing around with this thing?” Pidge asked.

“Well, for starters... shORT CIRCUITING IT?” Matt yelled.

“Pfft, an minor inconvenience for the greater good of science!” Pidge blew off.

“Katie, did you forget that thing is attached to your SPINE?” Matt worriedly yelped.

“That’s why I need to know what it does! If it’s connected to such a major system, then what were the Galra planning to use it for? What else could it do? And is there something in there that could result in them controlling me?” Pidge’s voice wavered at the last question. “Matt, they talked about erasing my MEMORIES. That is no small feat, and I feel like it wasn’t the end of it. This thing controls my entire nervous system, as well as my entire body. What if...” she trailed off, looking for words to finish her statement. “What if THEY hack it?” She finished, looking Matt dead in the eye. “What if the Galra find a way to hack into it, up close or even from a distance? They DID make it! If I hack it first, I can rearrange codes, cut off any access points they could’ve placed, and maybe even find out more about it than I do now! Like limits, drainage, you name it! It’s a risk, but a risk I will take if it means keeping the Galra from using me,” She finished.

Matt continued to give her a stern look, but then gave out. “Ok, ok ok... but I have to help you!” 

“What?” Pidge asked, unsure if he was joking.

“I’m going to help you and Hunk. I can’t let you do something stupid on your own,” Matt grinned.

Pidge gasped, “you’re going to do the stupid WITH me!” 

“You got it,” Matt winked, constantly adjusting his glasses as he did so.

“You should probably adjust those first,” Pidge suggested.

“Yep, good plan,” Matt agreed.

——————

“Ok, do the glowy thing!” Hunk ordered.

Pidge nodded and focused on the image of her bayard forming at her hand, in which her body quickly responded and the glowing purple webbed from her back, down her arm and finally forming into the solid purple bayard. Hunk quickly looked over her arm and trailed it back to her spine. 

“The energy you’re emitting is incredible,” Matt gasped, looking over his own device. “This much could power a Galra warship for at least a thousand years! In other words, it’s a lot,” he concluded.

“It’s also very concentrated,” Hunk mumbled, looking at her bayard. “If you noticed, the glowing only follows the tracks that lead to your hand. There is no sign of it anywhere else. It’s possible this thing is storing the energy and distributes it based on your brains wavelengths!” Hunk theorized.

“He’s right! Not to mention it remains glowing for however long you keep the form of whatever your thinking about!” Matt noticed.

“Hey, what if you tossed it from one hand to the other?” Hunk suggested. Pidge nodded and did as he instructed, tossing the bayard from her right to left hand. It remained steady and strong as it was tossed, the glowing acting like a string to it as it followed the bayard from her right hand to the left. “Weird,” Pidge said as she looked at the concentrated energy. 

“The glowing followed it on your body as it was tossed. Maybe try placing it on the ground and seeing how far you can get from it before it destabilizes!” Matt asked.

Pidge followed his instructions, placing the bayard on the ground and walking away from it as she tried to keep it stable. Upon taking 10 steps from the bayard, the glowing in her nerves faded then the bayard shattered on the last step. “So in order to keep whatever I have stable, it needs to be near me,” Pidge concluded. “I guess archery may be something I can’t use.”

Hunk frowned and crossed his arms, then perked up. “What if you attach a string to it? Like an energy string? Then-“

“-it might continue feeding it energy!” Matt finished, excited.

Pidge nodded, repeating the processes of creating the bayard, but this time with a string attached to it. She started to take steps backwards, lengthening the string with each step. The bayard’s form didn’t even waver, even as she reached the far wall. She cut off the string and the entire thing shattered upon being disconnected. “It seems your theory is correct! As long as it’s attached, then it shouldn’t shatter!” Pidge exclaimed.

Matt grinned, pushing up his glasses as if he was in one of his favourite anime’s. “Ke! Of course it was correct!”

“Weeb,” Pidge snorted.

“Nerd!” Matt countered.

Everything felt right for once, all her worries melting away as the trio laughed and giggled at the petty insults.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How long will the bliss last? Probably not long


	23. Not Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is coming together, but Pidge just feels off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for disappearing for four months! School happened again, I hit a writers block, and it just went downhill. But I’m back! So enjoy this chapter!

“They’ve been activated sir, now we are waiting on your orders,” Acxa reported, standing tall as she addressed her superior while avoiding eye contact.

“Good, and everything is vital? No rejections?” Lotor asked, casually turning the monitors beside them.

“Yes sir!”

“Excellent,” he grinned, greed glinting in his eyes. So much had occurred during that battle, so many things he thought only that hag could do. When the Paladin fell off the cliff, he thought that everything he had achieved had ended up a waste. Especially after the Yellow Paladin got back up after being killed by Acxa, maximizing little Green’s potential as a weapon.

Even more, this may be the only time this entire experiment is possible. Based on previous findings with the few humans they’ve had captive, they have different types of blood, which was one factor leading to Green accepting altaen blood and therefore accepting the quintessence. Greens blood was different from the champion and the two humans they use to have captive. Only the older human had similar traces of blood type to Green, giving lead to theories of recessive genes.

Lotor looked at the screen, a diagram of a humanoid figure with multiple flashing green lights within it lit up the screen. He flashed a larger, slyer smile. Who would be the first victim to break this small human?

Narti suddenly stepped into the light, her cat wrapped around her shoulders as she brought up a picture and showed her commander. At first, he thought it was Green in different attire, but then he realized it was in fact the other human prisoner that escaped with a bunch of rebels.

He exchanged a glance with Narti, quickly understanding what she was indicating. “It seems we found our first victim. Let’s see if she will be able to resist the nanobots in order to save her brother,” Lotor grinned.

——

Pidge sat on the top of a hill, looking out at the vast landscape and taking in the beauty of the colours that seemed to blur together as the sun gently lowered itself to the ground. She couldn’t feel relaxed for some reason though, and she couldn’t understand why.

She was finally reunited her family, her searching was over. Of course, she needed to stay with Voltron and stop the Galra Empire from doing more damage and free the universe from its reign. Yet something still felt off, like she was forgetting to do something really important.

Matt suddenly flopped down beside her and ruffled her already messy hair playfully, “whatchya pondering about sis?” 

Pidge shrugged, unsure of how to explain what she was feeling. “I feel... off. I should feel good, great even! I found you and dad, we are figuring out how to use this Robot Spine to our advantage, everything is twisting to our favour! But... something just isn’t sitting well, like forgetting a book and later realizing it once you get to school.”

Matt looked over at the sunset, thinking about what she said. “Maybe it’s lack of purpose? Sometimes I would feel somewhat similar when completing a very complex assignment. When you have a final goal and you reach it, you are left wondering what to do next. If anything, try taking that next step forward and placing up an even more complicated goal.”

Pidge frowned, “I don’t think that’s it. I’m afraid it’s something... worse.”

Matt stood up and brushed off his pants. “Well, I’m sure you will figure it out! You are the smartest sister in the whole universe!”

Pidge playfully tried to push his legs out from under him before he jumped away, “you are such a dork!”

Matt grinned, “biggest dork in the galaxy!”

Pidge laughed as he disappeared back into the base, shaking her head in disbelief that he still managed to be Matt, even after everything they’ve been through. She looked back at the sky and smiled as the stars started to blink to life as the sky darkened. 

She then trained her gaze on her hand, creating a ball of energy and focusing on the glowing in her arms. There was still so many things she didn’t know, about Galra technology, her spine attachment, and just the universe in general. It scared her, but also drove her to learning as much as possible in order to subdue that fear.

Her skin suddenly felt as though it was crawling and she shivered, looking around as if to find ants crawling up her arm or something. But there was nothing crawling around her, it was empty all around.

Really empty.

She suddenly noticed the lack of sound, no native creatures were making any noise, no chirps, hiccups, or grunts. Just silence.

Silence was never a good sign.

“Bringing back the dead now,” a silky voice hummed from behind her.

In an instant, she threw herself away from the source of the voice and summonses her Bayard, ready to attack the purple creep. She locked eyes with him and hissed, “you have a lot of nerve-“

Lotor cut her off, “I want to make an offer. Come and willingly work for me, and I’ll leave Voltron and their rebel friends alone.”

“What makes you think-!” She growled but was cut off once again.

“Or! Or refuse my offer and watch your brother die,” he finished.

“I’ll repeat myself. What makes you think I’ll ever take an offer from you? You are nothing but a sick bastard who uses people to get what he wants! Even if that means tearing apart families, or even tearing apart people!” She cried.

“So you refuse my offer?” He asked, his heads neatly folded behind his back as he leaned forward.

“What else would it mean?” Pidge spat.

Lotor smirked, as if that was the answer he was looking for. “Then things get interesting.” He revealed a remote from behind his back, and the crawling under Pidge’s skin intensified. Her stomach dropped. 

She lurched forward, lunging for the device in his hand. Then fell right through him.

Her heart stopped as she heard him cackle and her joints locked. Static filled her head and she began to yell, trying to fight back.

Her worst fear was coming true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only the beginning.


End file.
